


Airplanes

by airplanesmuke



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: 1930's, AU, Angst, Coming Out, Depression, Happy Ending, Hate, M/M, United States, chef!Michael, chef!calum, friendstolovers, homeless!luke, paperboy!luke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-05-12 04:53:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 39,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5653129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airplanesmuke/pseuds/airplanesmuke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

SAN FRANCISCO: 1926

Michael was angry. 

He was angry at the sun for shining. He was angry at the birds for singing. He was angry at the people who didn’t care about his uncle, yet still had the audacity to show up at his funeral. He was just angry at everything.

It was too hot for Michael’s taste, but to be fair, it was the middle of August in San Francisco. He could feel the sweat dripping down his neck, resting at the top of his black suit, but he didn’t have the energy anymore to wipe it off. 

Michael was not just angry, he was tired.

He was tired of seeing black everywhere. He was tired of people coming up to him to give condolences. He was tired of trying not to cry whenever anyone mentioned the name “John”. He was just tired of everything. 

He knew it was coming, his uncle’s death, everyone knew it was coming. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt when it happened. His uncle, John, was young, only in his late 40’s when the doctors told the Clifford’s that he had a heart problem. The innocent headaches and lack of breath turned into piercing migraines and frequent blackouts, and one night John went to bed and didn’t wake up.

For as long as Michael could remember, it was just him and John. His parents both died of pneumonia during one of Michael’s first winters and John had eagerly taken him as his own. Michael could remember spending every waking moment in the summer fishing off the dock by his house, catching trout and salmon for that night’s supper and swimming in the crystal clear lake when it got too hot to do anything else. He remembered his uncle spending hours preparing extravagant meals, and watching in awe as John perfected dish after dish. Despite all of his work, John always found time to eat dinner with Michael, and right now he was kicking himself for never giving his uncle the thank you he deserved. 

A hand squeezed Michael’s shoulder, bringing him out of his trance. He prepared himself for fake sympathy as he turned around, only to find himself looking at a familiar face. 

“Calum,” he sighed. He fell into his best friend’s arms, accepting the comforting touch, wrapping his own arms around Calum’s middle. 

Calum Hood met Michael on their first day of school, where it was obvious that one was better at mathematics than the other. While Michael was cursing under his breath, completely lost during an especially difficult test, the other boy had offered him a comforting glance, and maybe even a few answers. Ever since then, it had been Michael-and-Calum. You couldn’t find one without the other.

The two of them stood under the beating sun, not knowing what would happen next. Michael was never really sure what John did, but whatever it was, it brought in money. But he never knew how much until the week after the funeral. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael’s eyes widened as he put down his drink.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think there should be that many zeros” he exclaimed, not believing the words written down on the tan paper. 

“Mr. Clifford, I can assure you I was just as surprised as you are. Now, all you have to do is sign right here and your name will go under your uncle’s bank account” 

Despite being six feet under, Michael’s uncle had left him quite a bit of paperwork. He had sat down with the family lawyer, working through John’s will. Michael already knew he was going to sell the house and move to another area. The old mansion left too many memories that he was not ready to relive. While he was aware that he could sell that house for a couple hundred thousand, Michael was floored to find out that he was now a millionaire. 

He signed the paper and thanked the man again before walking out of the cafe. He knew he was going to meet Calum for dinner in town, but he needed a few moments to collect his thoughts. Walking through the park, Michael knew exactly where he was going. The 23-year old had been coming to this park since he could walk and knew all of the best hideaways. His favorite spot, however, was a short walk through the woods into a small yet secluded clearing where a small stream flowed through with rocks to sit on. 

Michael always found it was easy to think here, and right now he needed time to focus on one thing: the inheritance. Michael knew how hard John worked each day, and he wanted to do something John would be proud of. His mind immediately went to a restaurant. Cooking had been John’s passion, and Michael loved food. This could be Michael’s final thank you to his uncle, the send-off that he truly deserved. For the first time in weeks, Michael smiled to himself.  
He was going to start a restaurant. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SAN FRANCISCO: 1929

Michael had the best job in the world. At least that’s what it felt like. No early wake-up calls, no suit to put on everyday, no worries about money, and of course, he was able to do the thing he loved every day: cook. 

In the weeks following his restaurant revelation, Michael bought of two-story building, with a kitchen on the ground floor and a living space from himself upstairs. He invested quite a lot of money into repairing the old space, but it was worth every penny. Now WonderBar was one of the most popular eateries in the city. People came from all over to enjoy Michael’s homemade American meals. 

“You cook?” was the first thing that came out of Calum’s mouth when Michael first told him of his plan to open a restaurant. 

The answer was no. Michael did not cook at all before John’s death, and his experiences in the kitchen prior to that had never been very hands-on. But Michael was never one to back down from a challenge. He took Calum back to his old house and told him to wait in the dining room. It took him a long time, but when he finally emerged from the kitchen,he was impressed with his work.

To this day, Michael has no idea how his lies got past Calum. In the nights since John’s death, Michael had relied heavily on pizza, and he saw no reason to make Calum any other dish. However, despite having all the ingredients and cooking the pizza to perfection, he was unable to successfully put it on a plate. He cursed to himself as one half flipped over onto the other. Knowing Calum had been waiting for a while, Michael sent up a silent prayer and took the plate out to the kitchen. He had expected Calum to just dig right in without any questions, but Michael should have known that he would never felt him off so easy.

“What do you call it?”, Michael froze. 

“..Uh..,” he muttered, his mind running rapidly, looking for an answer., “a Cal...zone? A calzone!” He pulled himself together, and looked Calum in the eye, daring him to disagree. Calum, unable to see through Michael’s bullshit, went with it. And ever since that night, there was an unspoken agreement between the two that while Michael was the head chef, Calum would be his sous chef. 

The two of them had a good system. It was really a learning process for the two boys, but once they got it, they got it. However, this was the first time Michael trusted Calum to manage the restaurant for the weekend. It wasn’t uncommon for Michael to need to leave town to go check out the competition, but he previously opted to close down the store while he was out. But this time, Calum had assured him that it would be fine. 

So when he finally drove off, Calum knew that Michael letting him manage was no small feat, and he wasn’t going to let anything or anyone mess this up. It was all going well, the tables were set, all the ingredients he needed for the night was there, and the waiters were just about to clock in, when he saw a small blonde boy pacing outside, waving newspapers for sale. 

He grabbed the boom and stalked outside, slamming the door shut to get the smaller boy’s attention.

“Hey kid,” Calum said, “Get outta here, I’ve got people to serve and your filth is already ruining property value”. 

The boy didn’t seem to notice, and kept waving newspapers with his right hand around while trying to balance the whole stack of them with his left. The longer he ignored Calum, the more annoyed he got. 

The raven-haired boy stood the broom up along the side of the restaurant before walking over to the paperboy and pushing the stack of papers onto the ground. The blonde turned around in shock but Calum didn’t stop there. 

“My god, are you deaf or just stupid? Get off this property. Pick these up and go home” he yelled before turning, grabbing the broom and slamming the front door behind him. 

He didn’t look back to see tears welling in the blondes eyes as he picked up each paper, now soiled and unsellable. He stood up and took one last look at the restaurant before turning around, dejected, and walking away.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it was ideal. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> powered by that muke bali vid  
> (u all know which one)

Luke was sad and he was soaked. 

Leaving his home in North Dakota two years prior, Luke had told himself that things would be different. He could create new opportunities for himself, escape the blistering midwest sun, and maybe even meet someone to spend the rest of his life with. And well, after being kicked out of his home at 16, he didn’t really have another option. 

But right now, the rain soaking through his clothes was proof that only one of those wishes came true. He cursed at the lousy San Francisco weather as the newspapers on his arms dampened and became heavier. He wasn't sure whether the rain made the black ink run, blurring the words, or if the tears in his eyes were playing tricks on him. 

It wasn’t the longest walk back to his home, but the weight of the wet papers slowed him down. Could he even call it a home? It was a few cardboard boxes barely held together with old duct tape, only big enough for himself and his small bag of necessities that he had brought when he left North Dakota. The shelter resided in a compound of sorts, surrounded by others who had seen the same hard times when the economy went south. Luke couldn’t complain; it was nicer than most, with a fire pit in the center and people willing to share. Luke’s first shantytown experience had been a near nightmare; he had been the youngest by almost eight years and he had been forced to hold all his belongings at night too keep them from getting stolen in the middle of the night.

Moving to San Francisco six months ago, Luke had promised himself a new start. Rumours of job opportunities had brought him out West, and although they had turned out to be fruitless, he had made a friend and had managed to get by on the money he made from the papers. The job wasn’t awful, and the clean letterhead gave Luke a sense of comfort, despite his inability to decode the words. 

Luke had been half a year away from starting school when things on the farm went south. He had watched his older brothers Ben and Jack, come home each day bright eyed and full of enthusiasm, their bags full of pencils and books. Luke had watched with wonder, and he couldn’t wait to start. However, when the family farm was hit with hard times, they had to lay off the few workers they had, forcing the Hemmings boys to drop out to work in the fields. But Luke’s lack of schooling never stopped his dedication and admiration for education.

Now, his wet hair laid damp on his forehead and began to drip water into his eyes, but with his arms full of newspaper he was unable to wipe the drops away. Out of frustration, he threw the ruined papers to the wet concrete. “It’s not like anyone was going to buy them anyway”, he thought to himself. Without the excess weight, he walked briskly, being sure to keep his head down and steer clear of passer bys. He couldn’t deal with any snide comments today. 

Once he got to his little shack, he pulled out a small rag and wiped the mix of rain, grime, and tears off of his face, before wringing the cloth out and laying it out to dry. 

Luke’s stomach grumbled loudly, a stark reminder that he had missed out on the past couple of meals. It was rare when Luke was not hungry, and as far as he could recall his last proper meal had probably been at his parent’s house, over two years ago. He fished around in his pocket as he walked out of his enclosure, his hands gripping the small potato that he had been able to find mostly in tact in the dumpster behind the new restaurant. 

It was more surprising than not if Luke was able to find a small potato or piece of bread every couple of days. He was so tempted every time he found something to just shove it down his throat immediately just to get rid of that queasy feeling that followed him around, but he knew better and rationed every scrap he could lay his hands on. 

He walked over to a neighboring shack, one much larger than his own, and pulled back the soaked sheet that acted as the door. Before he knew it, two small bodies clung to his sides in a hug and a unified shout of “Luke!”

Wrapping his arms around the small children, he asked, “Is Ash not back yet?” 

“No, not yet.” Lauren, the oldest of the two told him. She had let go of Luke at this point and gone back to whatever she was doing before. The youngest one, Harry, had always had a soft-spot for the blonde boy and refused to let go. Luke walked over to where Lauren was coloring on one of the newspapers Luke didn’t sell last week. He pulled Harry onto his lap and waited for Ashton to come back. 

Ashton Irwin was Luke’s best friend. The two met the day Luke moved to the shantytown. Ashton and his siblings had been living there for over a year and a half when he ran into a very distressed Luke on the street. The blond had collided with some boys coming home from school, a mistake he would be careful to never make again. Three of them were holding him back while another one was rummaging through his stuff. Ashton had ran over to them and punched the first boy in the face. They got a good look at Ashton(‘s arms) before dropping everything and running off. The wavy-haired boy helped collect Luke’s scattered things and helped him up. The two had been inseparable since.

Ashton became the the type of older brother that Luke had wanted. Sure, he had two older brothers, but they had never cared for him or protected him like Ashton now did, and in his darker moments Luke wondered if they ever loved him. Ashton watched over Luke, and even though they had known each other for less than a year, Luke considered him family. 

The thing about Ashton was that you could always hear him before you saw him. Unsurprisingly, everyone in this shitty place loved him. He always spoke to the neighbors, always sung to the kids, and of course everyone admired his ability to take care of his younger siblings. Luke didn’t know much about Ashton’s past, but he definitely wasn’t about to mess up their friendship by asking him about it. 

So when Luke heard the opening verse to “Sittin’ on Top of the World”, he knew Ashton was close. Luke was always envious of Ashton’s optimistic facade. As the older boy pulled back the door, Harry jumped out of Luke’s lap to welcome Ashton back. He greeted Harry with a big hug and kiss on the head before walking over to Lauren and giving her a side hug, laughing when she pushed his wet body away. 

“Luke! My man! Thanks for keeping the little ones company, had a little holdup at the job” Ashton worked as an apple seller on the corner of 3rd and Albion St. More often than not, he would be home later than Luke, so the blonde had no problem hanging out with Ashton’s siblings until he returned. 

“No problem Ash,” Luke said. “I ended early and had time to look through the alley trash cans after work, and look what I found!” He eagerly held up the misshapen potato from his pocket. Ashton smiled at him and took it. The two of them had been working on a “Friendship Feast” for some time now. It started with Luke sharing what he could find with Ashton, knowing his siblings would need it more than him. Ashton appreciated the gesture but was constantly worried about Luke, so he decided to have one night a month where the four of them would throw their worries of rationing out the window and eat almost everything they had. 

The second feast was that night. As they were all scarfing down potatoes and bruised apples, Ashton struck up conversation with Luke.

“So, how was work today? That restaurant looked really popular, I’m sure you were successful” he asked. 

There was no way that Luke would tell Ashton about what happened today in front of the restaurant, the older boy would go straight to the restaurant the next morning. Luke was already embarrassed enough by what happened, he didn’t need Ashton to have to save him yet again. 

“It was good,” he responded. “Sold a lot more papers than usual”. That wasn’t a lie, he sold more papers in front of the shop than he had ever sold anywhere else. 

Ashton nodded and went back to his apple. “You should go back there tomorrow, it seems like a good place for you”. Luke froze at the thought of going back, but he knew if it would bring in more money, that it was necessary. After everything Ashton had done for him, he owed him that much.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it was ideal. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Luke woke up on his handmade bed of newspapers with the thin blanket kicked off to the side. He cracked his back and stretched out his toes, preparing his body for the grueling day ahead of him. He cursed when he remembered his promise to Ashton of going back to the restaurant today, where it was clear that his presence was unwelcomed. Slowly but surely, he put on his shoes and walked to the nearby creek.The blonde took his time washing his face and running water through his mouth, avoiding going to work. 

He popped his head into Ashton’s enclosure on his way to work. Ashton had already left and Harry and Lauren were sleeping next to one another peacefully. He smiled at the two before heading out. 

Luke picked up a stack of newly printed papers from the store, giving his manager Richard a wave with his free hand. His heart started racing when he turned onto the street WonderBar was on. He took a few deep breaths before stepping onto the corner and starting his day, his heart still beating fast with the thought of being publicly berated again. But after the first couple of hours passed without incident, Luke let his guard down a bit. As usual, business slowed after the morning rush, and Luke was alone with his thoughts.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael had returned late last night from the restaurant tasting across town. Despite his drowsiness, his passion of cooking had been rejuvenated. The brunch crowd has just been cleared out, leaving Michael and his small team bustling around in a hurry, trying to get ready for lunch. The morning had gone off without a hitch until Calum stormed back in from taking out the trash, his face red with anger. “I can’t believe that dirty beggar is back” he muttered through gritted teeth, slamming the kitchen door on the way in. “Woah, dude what’s with all the anger?” Michael asked, his hand moving to touch Calum’s back in concern.

“I told that fucking tramp to leave yesterday, I made it pretty damn clear, and now he’s back, ruining our property value” Calum snapped, his loud voice attracting the attention of the other workers. Michael visibly softened, relieved that there was no real danger.

“What are you talking about?” Michael asked, walking over to his friend, nk“What ‘tramp’?”

“Whatever, it doesn’t even matter,” Calum muttered, but the look Michael was giving him begged him to elaborate. “Yesterday when you were gone, I didn’t want anything to go wrong but then when I was setting up for dinner some filthy kid was selling newspapers outside and I swear Michael, he smelled so bad that people walking past the restaurant were holding their noses. He’s ruining business. And now he has the nerve to come back after I was very clear that he should never come around here again.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’ll just go back out there and talk to him.” Michael assured. He patted Calum on the back before stepping outside, using his hands to block his eyes from the harsh afternoon sun. He looked around before seeing a sweaty blonde boy in dirty clothes and a stack of newspapers on the corner outside his restaurant. He was all ready to yell at him when the boy turned around and Michael got a good look at him. 

His blonde hair was matted a little and his face was covered with a mixture of dirt and sweat. Michael could see the fear in the boy’s dull eyes as he advanced towards him. His worn out clothes hung off his lanky body, tinted brown from the amount of dirt and grime on them. His shoes were tattered and full of holes, but when Michael took a step back and looked at the blonde as a whole, he nearly gasped.

He had never seen anyone as skinny as this boy.

Momentarily distracted by his thoughts, Michael didn’t even notice the boy scramble up towards him, dropping a few papers on the way, apologizing frantically. The boy had taken Michael’s silence as a cue to stop talking, and he self-consciously picked at his dirty nails, and slouched back, making him appear smaller than he was.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Michael asked dumbly.

The blue-eyed boy looked up at him with fear in his eyes, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have come back after yesterday, but I sell so many papers here! I promise I don’t want to ruin business or anything! I’m sorry, this was so stupid. You’ll never see me again.” he rushed out as he turned to walk away. 

“Kid,” Michael yelled to him, and Luke turned around. “What’s your name?” 

“Luke” he responded. 

“Great Luke, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Michael. Come back here and talk to me for a minute okay?”

Luke slowly walked back to the restaurant, keeping his eyes on the ground and holding his papers close to his chest like he was afraid Michael was going to punch him. When he looked up, he saw Michael smiling at him. 

“Luke, I’m not going to hurt you. I promise. Now if you want to sell newspapers here, I have no problem with that” Luke’s head shot up in surprise, and Michael continued, “ But there is one thing you have to do for me. I know times are tough right now, and I hate to say this, but unless you can do something about the smell, I can’t let you sell here” The blonde sheepishly nodded, “It’s bad for business. We can make a deal, I’ll make sure Calum doesn’t bother you if you can wash your clothes out for me”. 

Michael watched Luke carefully, eyes full of relief and determination. “Thank you, thank you so much sir. I’ll wash them right now, I promise!” He watched as the blonde turned back around and run down the street. The chef chuckled and waved before walking back into the restaurant to deal with Calum.

“What the hell was that?” was the first thing Michael heard when he walked in. 

“What are you talking about?” he asked his best friend

“You literally told him to come back, how could you do that to this restaurant? You don’t understand, people are going to stop coming to eat here because of that kid and then we’ll both be screwed. You really fucked up Mike” Calum spat. 

“Did you look at him yesterday Cal? The kid needs help, he was skin and bones and covered in dirt! I bought this property and if he wants to try and make a living here then that’s fine by me. I don’t care if you agree with me or not, but this is what’s going to happen” Michael proclaimed, “Luke will come back tomorrow in clean clothes and he will sell his papers here for as long as he wants and you will leave him alone.”

Calum shook his head, “You’re making a big mistake”

“If this is a mistake, then I’ll take all the blame, but for now he’s here and he’s staying. And you will leave him alone.” Michael demanded. 

“Whatever, I’ll stay away from him” Calum replied.

“Good, now start chopping the vegetables. Lunch begins in an hour”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luke was out of breath by the time he got to the market where he got his papers. He had managed to sell all but five that day, and when he put all the change had managed to make on Richard’s counter he felt a rush of pride. 

Richard shot him a grin and gave Luke his portion of the selling along with a small pack of crackers from the store and a simple: “I’m proud of you kid.”

The blonde looked at the two nickels in front of him before shoving his hand into his pocket and pulling out the spare change that he had been keeping there. So far, he had 3 nickels and eight pennies. He pushed them across the counter asking, “Will this get me laundry soap?” Richard counted it up before nodding. He grabbed the packet of soap and pushed Luke’s coins back towards him.

“Don’t worry about it Luke. You’re one of my best workers, keep your money, this is the least I can do.” Luke tried to assure his boss that paying was no problem for him, but once he realized Richard wasn’t having it, he gave him a wide smile and a “thank you” before stuffing everything back into his pocket and leaving the store. 

Once he left the store, he walked through the town, passed the block of shantytowns and eventually ended up at the small creek. He took his clothes off and washed them through the water, already noticing some dirt wash off. Luke examined the packet before remembering he couldn’t read. He panicked for a moment, not knowing what to do. Then he remembered helping his mom wash clothes and he ripped open the soap packet. He spent hours trying to bring his shirt and pants back to their original color, his knuckles red and raw from scrubbing, only stopping once he realized he had run out of detergent. He smiled at the soapy clothes before washing all of it out and hanging them up to dry. 

Luke didn’t plan on walking back to his shack naked or in soaking clothes, so he opted to spend the night by the creek; the weather didn’t look bad and the fresh air would do him good. He walked around the creek for a while, seeing as the sun wasn’t close to setting. He found a little canopy area and piled up some leaves to use as a bed. Luke was exhausted after the dramatic events of the day, and found himself dozing off quickly. 

It only took a few drops of rain to wake Luke up the next morning, but by then the damage had already been done. He scrambled to his feet and ran out to where his clothes were, only to see that the rain had soaked them straight through. The rain slowed down and eventually stopped, but the clouds remained overhead. Luke wrung out his clothes as best he could and shimmied into them before beginning the long walk to work, leaving a trail of water as he went. 

His feet sloshed around in his tattered shoes as he got to Richard’s store. Luckily for him, the papers were outside so he was able to take his stack without ruining the store’s flooring. He nervously approached the restaurant, stopping when he saw Michael and Calum talking outside of it. 

His eyes widened when Calum turned and looked at him. Luke could feel the raven-haired boy’s eyes look him up and down. 

He expected a scoff or an insult, but when Calum burst out laughing, Luke felt his heart drop. “Oh my god Michael look at him! He’s soaking wet. Did I not tell you this would happen?”.

“Shut up Calum. Go inside and leave him alone”. Michael snapped at him before turning to Luke. His eyes were fixed on the ground and Michael swore he could hear soft sniffles as he walked towards him.

“Hey Luke” he smiled. Luke raised his head and wiped his eyes. 

“I..I uh washed my clothes and hung them up last night but it rained and yeah...I’m really sorry, I tried my best but I get if you don’t want me here”

Michael shook his head, “It’s no problem Luke, you look a lot better than you did yesterday, and they’ll be dry in a matter of hours. You can sell out here for as long as you want”. 

So he did just that.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it was ideal. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Michael and Luke quickly fell into routine. 

Luke woke up every morning, slipped on his clothes, grabbed his newspapers from Richard and stood in front of the restaurant, selling them until he ran out. He got a few dirty looks from Calum throughout the day, but talking with Michael while he cleaned the windows at the end of the day made up for it.

The blonde found himself looking forward to that part of the day, his eyes glancing at the storefront as evening approached, anxious for the older boy’s presence. On occasion, Luke would even stay late, long after all his newspapers had been sold, just to chat with Michael. Those special circumstances are what had led him, on one particular night, to be sitting outside WonderBar feeling the San Francisco evening wind ruffle his clothes about. His eyes were closed and his head began to loll back, his body feeling the effects of a taxing day of work. Anyone who walked by would see a boy relaxing, but Luke was just too tired to move.

“Goddammit Michael I told you this would happen. First he’s selling papers here and now he’s fucking sleeping here.”

Luke knew it was Calum and tried to at least open his eyes, but his attempts were useless. He should have stood up and started apologizing but he couldn’t. He hadn’t eaten in two days and standing in the blistering heat had really been taking a toll on his body; The blonde knew if he even tried to stand up he would topple over from exhaustion. 

“Luke?” the familiar voice asked, “Luke, buddy are you alright?”

“Just peachy” he managed to get out. It took all the strength he had to open his eyes and stand up. He looked at the two boys in front of him; One’s face showed annoyance while the other one’s was filled with worry and concern. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I’ll be on my way now” he said before turning and slowly trekking away. 

Miraculously, the paperboy made it back to the block of shantytowns before he collapsed. He could faintly hear voices frantically coming closer to him before it all went black. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing Luke saw when he opened his eyes was the back of his best friend’s head. “Ash?” he croaked out. Ashton quickly turned around and sat next to the blonde.

“Hey kid, are you alright? You didn’t look so good earlier?” he asked while grabbing Luke’s hand. Luke tried to sit up and respond but Ashton pushed him back onto the old pillow he was laying on. 

“None of that Luke, you have to rest. When was the last time you ate? Drank? Slept?” 

“I’m fine Ashton. I just had a long day, it’s nothing to worry about.” 

“Nothing to worry about? Luke, you cannot be serious. If you had a long day you come home tired and have an early night, not pass out! Look, I’m all for you making money selling papers all day, but you can’t just brush this off like it’s nothing. You have to slow down.” Ashton argued. 

“I was just standing in the sun for the last few days and I guess I wasn’t drinking enough.” Luke half-lied. He knew there was no point in arguing with Ashton right now. What was he supposed to do? Yeah he was selling a lot of papers at the restaurant, but he couldn’t live off of a few pennies a week. He was so embarrassed about having to dig through the trash for scraps, there was no way he would tell Ashton that he was struggling. His friend already had to worry about finding food for Lauren and Harry and he didn’t need to stress about Luke. 

Ashton gave him a bottle of cold water from the creek and a bruised apple. Luke knew if he didn’t accept it, Ashton would know he wasn’t eating so he took it gratefully and quietly. He finished the apple in record time, and had begun gathering his bag and clothes for the day before he felt Ashton’s hand resting firmly on his shoulder.

“I don’t want you selling papers for a day or two” said ashton calmly, a firm expression on his face.

“What?! No! Are you serious Ash?” Luke exclaimed.

“Yes Luke. Look at yourself, you need to rest. You nearly scared Lauren and Harry to death earlier and I’m not letting you risk your health for a penny or two. You’re staying here tomorrow and that’s final.” Ashton demanded. 

Luke felt hot anger growing in his stomach, but even in his sorry state he knew Ashton was only looking out for him.“Fine,” he stammered. “but I’m going back the day after tomorrow.”

“Only if you are well rested and feeling better.” Ashton said. Luke nodded before sitting up and grabbing his tattered coat. “What are you doing?” Ashton asked him. 

“Going back to my shack? You said I need to rest.”

Ashton shook his head, “You’re not moving. I can go and grab you anything from your shack if you want.” 

“Dude that’s ridiculous I can walk,” Luke started but Ashton softly pushed him back down and blew out the candle that was burning between the two of them. 

“Just rest Luke. Please.” And with that, Luke closed his eyes and went to sleep. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was around lunchtime when Ashton started to walk over to WonderBar. He wanted to make sure Luke wasn’t lying to him and wasn’t at the restaurant. Plus, Ashton was a curious guy, and you had to be an idiot not to notice that Luke had more pep in his step ever since he had started selling on that corner. 

He turned onto the street and was surprised at how many people there were. There were men in suits taking their lunch breaks and groups of women sharing a meal at the outdoor bars, but thankfully, no Luke. He sighed in relief but still went up to the front door of the restaurant; he wasn’t sure if Luke would have come for the morning rush then left.

When he approached the front door, he found himself staring straight at a young man in a white chef’s outfit, who was looking straight past Ashton and out the window, his face consumed with worry. A bell went off when Ashton opened the door and was hit with the smell of garlic and butter. The man at the window was struck out of his trance and turned to Ashton with a small smile. 

“Welcome to WonderBar. Will just you be eating today?” he asked. 

“Oh, no sorry, I’m not here to eat. I just wanted to know if you had seen a small blonde boy selling papers out here this morning?” 

“Have you? He’s usually here everyday. Do you know if anything’s happened to him?” the chef questioned frantically. 

“Oh thank god. No sorry, he had an accident last night and I didn’t want him working today and I just wanted to know if he had come here or not. Thanks for all your help..?” 

“Michael. And you are?” 

“Ashton. Nice to meet you. Thanks for letting Luke come and sell here, it’s been really successful and he seems much happier.” 

“It’s no problem, I like having him here. What did you say about him having an accident? Do you know where he lives? I wanna make sure the he’s okay.” Michael asked. 

“Are you sure? You don’t have to do that if you’re super busy here.” Michael cut Ashton off and shook his head. “It’s no problem, lunch is slowing down anyway. I can get away for a few minutes, just give me minute to tell my friend.”

Ashton nodded and stepped outside. Michael came out a minute later and the two went off. 

“You know, thanks for being so nice to Luke these days. I like coming home and seeing him smile when I ask him about his day.” Ashton said a few minutes into the walk. 

“He’s a good kid. Do you guys live together?” Michael asked.

“Not exactly.” 

The two continued the rest of the walk in silence. The further Ashton lead him out of the city, the more confused Michael was about where Luke lived. But it all became clear to him when Ashton turned into a wooded area. 

“It’s not exactly paradise, but it works.” he said quietly before weaving the two through shack after shack. Michael could hear sounds of laughter from outside one of the larger shacks and smiled to himself at the familiar voice. Ashton opened the door and the two watched as a small girl was drawing in the corner and giggling at the young boy and Luke play wrestling. 

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Ashton asked amused. The two boys immediately stopped and looked towards Ashton. Harry jumped off of Luke and ran to his brother. 

“You’re home early!”. Harry exclaimed while wrapping himself around Ashton. 

Michael smiled at the two before turning to see Luke looking at him from the floor with wide eyes. “Hi Luke.”

“Michael? What are you doing here?” Luke asked bewildered. He slowly stood up and brushed off his pants before walking over to the chef. 

“You weren’t at the restaurant and Ashton came in and told me you had an accident and I wanted to make sure you were ok. Are you? What ever happened?”

“I was just really tired and kinda passed out I guess.” Luke answered while scratching the back of his neck. 

“Passed out? Oh my god Luke.” Michael pulled the smaller boy into a hug. As surprised as he was, Luke responded immediately and wrapped his arms around the chef. He didn’t think Michael had cared much about him. 

“I’m fine Michael I promise. I’ll be back tomorrow at the restaurant if that’s ok?” Luke timidly asked. 

“Of course, but only if you’re up for it. Promise me you won’t come if you don’t feel 100%.” 

“I promise.” 

Michael nodded at Luke before deciding it would be best to go back to the restaurant. As he was walking out of the Hoovertown his heart fell. It wasn’t fair that people like Luke and Ashton had to live in these awful situations, but he knew there wasn’t anything he could do for them. The rest of his day was spent with the skinny blonde boy on his mind.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luke returned to the restaurant the next day with an arm full of papers and a small bottle of water (courtesy of Ashton) and Michael and Luke fell right back into their routine. Michael was happy to have short conversations at the end of the day and Luke was thrilled to be able to consider Michael a friend. 

A week later, the day started out the same for the two of them. Luke woke up and put on his cleaned clothes before checking in on Lauren and Harry before walking to the store. He picked up his papers and made his way over WonderBar. Michael had woken up in his bedroom above his restaurant, met Calum in the kitchen, and began preparing the restaurant for the day ahead. Luke sold papers all day while Michael worked. 

While Calum was closing the restaurant, Michael popped out to see Luke leaning against the brick wall with his eyes closed. The chef smiled at the boy before calling out to him. The blonde opened his eyes and immediately Michael knew something was wrong. Luke took a few steps towards Michael before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he started to fall over. Michael rushed over and caught him right before he hit his head. 

Calum was whistling in the kitchen and cleaning the dishes so Michael carried Luke up without him noticing. He did not need to hear his best friend’s complaints about the blonde right now. He put Luke on his bed, grabbed a cloth, and ran it through water before placing it on Luke’s forehead. Michael sighed to himself, unsure of what to do next. 

He walked downstairs to the kitchen and quickly helped Calum close the restaurant before telling his friend he was going to turn in for the night. Calum nodded at him with a “See you tomorrow Boss” and left. When Michael went back upstairs, Luke was still passed out on his bed so he decided to steal a few pillows and make a bed for himself on the floor. He told himself that if Luke could do this every night, he could do it for one. He got a new washcloth for Luke’s head and set a glass of water along with a piece of bread on the bedside table, just in case the blonde woke up hungry in the middle of the night, before going to bed himself. 

Michael woke up the next morning with a kink in his neck and pounding on his door. 

“Mike? This guy here wants to see you and won’t leave until he does.” Calum stated and a familiar voice chimed in, “Michael? It’s Ashton. I really need to talk to you, it’s urgent!”. 

Michael groaned, “One second!” he yelled back. He turned to his bed and saw Luke sleeping with a small smile on his face. He turned to the door and opened it slightly. 

“Have you seen Luke?” was the first thing Ashton said to him. “He didn’t come home last night or this morning and no one has seen him and he never leaves and I’m so worried.”

Michael opened his door wider and let the two boys in. He pointed to the bed where Luke was and Ashton sighed of relief before turning to Michael. 

“What happened? What is he doing in your bed?” Ashton questioned. 

“He passed out again yesterday after work. I didn’t really know what to do so I brought him up here. Shit, I should have gone and told you what happened. I’m so sorry for worrying you.” Ashton sighed in relief and hastily pulled Michael into a hug.

“Thank you. You don’t know how appreciative I am.” Michael hugged back and shook his head, assuring the boy it was no problem at all. 

A creaking sound broke the two boys apart as they turned to the bed where Calum had Luke’s neck in his hand.

“What the hell is your game kid? Trying to sneak your way into an actual bed?” Luke tried to shake his head but Calum’s fist found his face first. 

“CALUM WHAT THE HELL! “ Michael screamed before grabbing his friend and pushing him away from Luke. Ashton sat on the bed next to Luke, trying to distract him while Michael dragged Calum out of the room. Michael slammed the door and hurried over to the bed. 

His heart sunk when he saw tears welling up in Luke’s eyes. “No, Luke. I’m so sorry. Are you ok? Wait no that was stupid. You’re not ok. One second.” He picked up the cloth and wet it again and placed it under Luke’s nose, cleaning up the blood. 

Suddenly, Luke realized where he was. In a bed, an actual bed. He hadn’t slept in a bed in over two years. He got up quickly and steadied himself. Ashton and Michael looked at him in confusion.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked out. “I have to go. Ashton please can we go?” Ashton looked from Michael to Luke and eventually nodded and stood up. The two were at the threshold when a soft “Luke?” came from the bed. The blonde turned around and looked at Michael.

“Will you come back to sell papers here?” he asked. There was a moment of silence before Michael continued, “I won’t let him hurt you. I know I did a shitty job of that before but I promise it will change.” 

Luke was silent for a minute and thought about it. Michael was the best part of his whole day. Michael had taken him into his own home and taken care of him when he passed out. Michael didn’t treat him like a homeless boy, he treated him with kindness and respect. Michael truly cared about him. 

“I promise.”


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it was ideal. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

After Luke left, Michael was furious. He could hear people gathering outside for Sunday Brunch but he didn’t care. The chef stormed down to the restaurant to find Calum; He spotted him in the back of the kitchen cracking eggs with bruised knuckles. 

“Are you out of your goddamn mind! What the hell was that?” Michael yelled, startling the sous chef. When Calum didn’t say anything, Michael continued, “He wasn’t sneaking into my bed you asshole. He passed out yesterday again so I took him to my room, I wasn’t going to just leave him on the streets! You know, we are so lucky that we have a proper home and food everyday, other people aren’t as fortunate. Luke is one of the nicest guys I’ve met and on top of everything he’s dealing with, he doesn’t need to deal with your bullshit.” 

“There’s something wrong with him Michael. He’s a homeless teenager, so sue me for thinking he snuck in.” Calum argued.

“If he snuck in, why the fuck would I be sleeping on the ground? You don’t know the first thing about his life so don’t act like you do. If there’s something wrong with anyone here it’s you. Luke did nothing to you and has nothing to do with you so leave him the fuck alone and we won’t have a problem.” 

Calum sighed. He knew he probably shouldn’t have choked the guy but the last thing he wanted to do was apologize. In retrospect,Calum thought, Michael should be thanking him for protecting him from a potential intruder, but even through the remnants of his anger Calum knew that that would be a tough card to play. There was no way he could weasel his way out of this apology.  
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have hit him, I’ll leave him alone.” Calum stated defensibly. 

Michael shook his head at him. “You’re fucked up Hood. Sometimes I don’t even know why I’m friends with you,” Calum froze at that. He didn’t realize hurting the paperboy would lead to this. “Go get more eggs”

“We have enough eggs?” Calum countered, a little confused.

“Then go get more.” Michael sharply responded. Calum got the hint and left the restaurant. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luke didn’t talk to Ashton on the way back to their shacks. How could he have let that happen again? He knew he was the reason for the bags under his friend’s eyes. When the two got back to their shantytown, Luke looked up at Ashton and was surprised to see tears welling up in his eyes.

“Ash, what’s wrong?”

Ashton shook his head and kept walking. When the two reached Ashton’s tent, only one of them was surprised to find that it was no longer there. Instead two large backpacks replaced it. 

“Ashton,” he murmured. “What’s going on?”

“We’re leaving,” Ashton mumbled. “My Aunt says she has a friend who has a room for us, for Harry, Lauren and I. I’m sorry, it’s just with the kids… it’s what’s best for them... we’re leaving tonight”.

Luke’s heart stopped and it was quiet for a few minutes.. “What about the next Friendship Feast?” he finally croaked out.

Ashton chuckled sadly and pulled him into a hug, “Luke, you are one of the best people I have ever met. I don’t know exactly where we’re going but I’ll find a way to come back and see you. I just need you to promise me something.”

Luke looked up at him and he continued, “I need you to take care of yourself. Leaving you right now is the last thing I want to do. You know just as well as I do that you’re overdoing it, so please slow down. I know you need the money, but passing out every week is just not worth it. And keep hanging out with Michael, the guy really cares for you and he’ll help you in a heartbeat.” 

The blonde threw himself into Ashton’s arms, his eyes filling with tears. “I promise.” he sniffled, roughly wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Ashton tightened his grip around the boy and kissed the top of his head. 

“You’ll be alright kid.” was the last thing Ashton said to him before grabbing the backpacks and walking out of the woods. Luke turned around and saw him jump into the passenger seat of a car with Harry and Lauren asleep in the back. The older boy gave him a wave and the car drove off- leaving Luke alone once again. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Calum was cursing to himself while he was walking back to the restaurant. Of course Michael would be the only chef in California that got his eggs from an old farm almost a mile away from the restaurant. Calum had gotten the eggs a few times when WonderBar first started up, but now they could afford to hire some neighborhood kid to do the walk every morning.

He had two full baskets of eggs as he turned off of the beaten path from the farms to the city. Beads of sweat were running down his face and it was only 10 in the morning. In the distance he noticed a group of people and an ambulance parked at the curb. Once he got closer to the scene, he could make out hushed whispers and a group of paramedics surrounding something that Calum could only assume was a body. He put down one of the baskets of eggs and approached one of the bystanders. 

“Hey, what happened?” he asked.

“I don’t really know, some kid just collapsed though. I just got here but from what I’ve heard it doesn’t look too good.” 

Calum thanked the man and walked towards the paramedics. He saw them hoisting a familiar boy onto a stretcher into the ambulance and froze. He rushed up to one of the men in white, “What happened? Is he okay?” 

The paramedic softened his eyes at the worried boy. “Wasn’t eating or drinking enough and his body just couldn’t handle it, ” he said as he closed the back doors of the ambulance. “Pretty common stuff, you know, I bet we get at least one or two of these cases a week”. 

Calum watched as the man got into the ambulance and drove off with the body, not even bothering to turn the sirens on . The boy’s name was Charlie; he had been around the restaurant begging sometimes and even made the mistake of asking Calum for something to eat or drink. He remembering laughing in his face and pushing him off of their property telling him he didn’t want to see “such a hideous beggar” like Charlie anywhere near the store. The last time Calum saw him, he was skinny. Not as skinny as Luke, but, LUKE. He dropped the second basket of eggs and sprinted the rest of the way back to WonderBar. He had let Charlie die, and he would never be able to live with himself if the same happened to Luke. 

Michael was in the kitchen, preparing the hollandaise for his famous Eggs Benedict when Calum came sprinting into the room. He closed the kitchen door and leaned against it breathing heavily. The chef was surprised to see his best friend in such a state but before he could even ask what happened, Calum broke down. Hollow sobs filled the room and Michael immediately turned off the stove and pulled his friend into his arms. 

Calum collapsed into Michael with mumbles of “..all my fault…” over and over. To say Michael was confused would be an understatement. Eventually Calum remembered the reason why he was at the restaurant in the first place. He pushed himself up from the ground and wiped his eyes. 

“Where does Luke live?” he demanded. 

“Luke? What the hell Calum? Why would I tell you where he lives?” Michael exclaimed.

“I’m not gonna hurt him! I need to apologize Mike. I have to see him please.” he begged.

This was the first time Michael had seen Calum cry hard and with desperation, and he gave Calum the directions to Luke’s dwelling without a second thought. Curiosity and pity for Calum’s anguish beckoned him to go along and visit Luke, but brunch was about to start and someone had to be at the restaurant.

Michael finished explaining how to get to Luke and pushed him out the door with a comforting pat and a threatening glance. Calum knew that if he messed this up with Luke, he could kiss his friendship with Michael goodbye.

Despite Michael telling him Luke lived in a shantytown, when Calum arrived, out of breath, he was shocked. He didn’t realize this was how people lived. Eventually, he found the small blonde sitting on the ground, slowly flipping through what looked like a book for small children. Calum watched his thin arms move and was reminded of Charlie. Unwillingly, he let out a soft sob which startled Luke and turned him around. 

“Calum?” the blonde asked confused. It’s not everyday someone who hates you shows up sobbing. “Are you alright?”

“NO,” the older boy choked out. “No Luke, I’m not okay. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” The rest of what he was trying to say was cut off by more sobs, and Luke rushed to his feet to comfort the boy, rubbing small circles around his back.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Calum asked once he had calmed down. “I’ve been horrible to you.”

Luke shrugged, “You looked like you needed a hug.” 

“I’m really sorry Luke. I was horrible to you for no reason. I know you probably won’t believe me when I saw this but I won’t hurt you ever again. If you want, I’ll never talk to you again.” he apologized.

“That’s not what I want. I know you only wanted what was best for the restaurant, and I get that I’m not exactly appealing to customers.. I forgive you. Maybe one day we can be friends?” Luke asked. The older boy just hugged him tighter and nodded into his shoulder. The two sat there for a few minutes before Calum spoke up again.

“Hey Luke? Why were you reading a book meant for like a six year old?” 

“Uh.. It’s stupid. Don’t worry about it,” but Calum’s concerned look forced him to continue “The guy who wanted to see Michael this morning was my friend Ashton and we uh… he protected me when I first came here six months ago and he has these two siblings and you know nevermind it’s embarrassing.” 

“Luke…it’s okay,” Calum pushed. “I’m not going to make fun of you or anything like that, I swear.” 

“I can’t read” Luke mumbled before blushing. “Lauren, Ashton’s sister, kind of knew how and she was helping me but she’s gone now and I guess so are my chances of learning to read.”

“Well, I can read.” Calum said.

“Don’t rub it in.” Luke retorted sarcastically. 

“No! I didn’t mean it like that, I swear! Look, I was really shitty to you and I wanna make it up to you. If you want,I can teach you how to read.” 

Luke looked at him hopefully, “Would you actually?” 

“Course. I’ll talk to Michael and get an hour or two off a few days a week to teach you. We can do it outside the restaurant if you’re gonna be there anyway.” 

The blonde was stunned. A few hours ago this guy gave him a bloody nose and now he’s offering him reading lessons? All he could do was nod at the older boy.

“Great! Ok, well I should be getting back to work. I’m really sorry about everything again, I was a proper dick. If you’re selling tomorrow at the restaurant then we can start then.” he said

Calum stood up and brushed off his pants before offering Luke a smile and wave and walking back to the restaurant. Luke was alone again, but this time he was biting back a smile instead of tears.


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it was ideal. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Luke always had quite the imagination as a child; he didn’t even need to go to school to know that he wanted to be a teacher. He grew up watching Jack and Ben come home everyday, full of knowledge that Luke could only dream about having. The blonde spent a lot of time in the fields when he was younger and he counted down the days until he would be able to go to school with his older brothers. He didn’t do any of the farm work his parents had expected, often hiding between the corn stalks and tracing the letter or two that Ben had taught him the night before in the dirt. When he was supposed to be in bed, Luke would have a candle lit and his row of stuffed animals lined up retelling the story of the Revolutionary War that Jack had explained to him earlier that night. 

So it wasn’t out of character for him to show up at Richard’s shop 15 minutes before it opened, at 5:45AM; in Luke’s eyes the faster he sold the papers, the more time he’d have with Calum. When Richard showed up 15 minutes later with the keys and a confused look, Luke threw him a smile, took the papers, and dashed off. 

The blonde was selling so many papers that he didn’t even notice Michael and Calum walking up to the restaurant to prep for the lunch rush. When Luke saw them and noticed a stack of paperback books in Calum’s arms his smile stretched across his face. Michael’s, however, faulted; “When did Luke and Calum become all buddy-buddy?” he thought to himself. While he unlocked the front doors, he listened in on Luke and Calum’s conversation.

“Hey Luke, I brought from books to start with today. Are you gonna be here all day?” 

“Yes! Sorry-I’m just really excited,” Luke blushed. “I was going to be here all day, if that’s ok? It is isn’t it? If not I can just go down to the-” 

Calum’s chuckling interrupted Luke’s rambling and the blonde could feel his whole face heat up. “Of course you can be here, I’ll find some time to come out, probably between lunch and dinner. Does that sound good?” 

Luke nodded up at him and Michael was just confused. 

“What are you guys doing?” he finally asked. Calum and Luke looked at each other before Luke spoke up. 

“He’s uh.. he’s teaching me how to read” he stuttered while rubbing the back of his neck. 

Michael was shocked. He never even thought about Luke going to school or even wanting to go to school. He realized that he didn’t really know much about the blonde. What exactly had happened yesterday when Calum went to talk to Luke? 

“Oh,I could teach you if you want?” he offered.

Calum clapped a hand over his shoulder. “Nah man. I owe him for nearly breaking his nose. I got this.” Luke giggled at that and Michael felt his chest constrict. He chalked it up to congestion before shaking it off and opening the front door.

“Well Luke, we’ll leave you to it. Come on Cal.” Luke wished them a good day before picking his newspapers back up and pacing the street once again while Michael held the door open for Calum. And if he gave the blonde one last glance, no one had to know. 

Over the course of the day, Michael had forgotten all about that morning’s events. Whenever he was cooking, he would almost fall into a “trance” as Cal called it, where he was unresponsive to anything but cooking. Calum always teased him for it, but cooking was what Michael loved to do and he wasn’t going to let a few amused remarks from his best friend alter his routine. 

But when Calum went up to him while he was cleaning the lunch dishes and said he was going to go hang out with Luke, Michael wasn’t pleased. The same tight feeling in his chest returned, and this time Michael knew it wasn’t congestion. And seeing Luke and Calum sitting in the alley behind the restaurant, shoulders touching, with a book between them did nothing to alleviate the pain.

Luke is my friend, he thought. Calum choked him and punched him in the nose yesterday! How could they be so close? 

Call him selfish, but he didn’t want Luke to be friends with Calum. Luke was Michael’s friend. He huffed back to the kitchen after washing all of the tables, ignoring the puzzled looks between the waiters. He looked at the clock once again and saw it was 4:50; WonderBar started serving dinner in 40 minutes. It took all of Michael’s strength to not call Calum back into the kitchen until 5:00; but as soon as it changed, he was out the door looking for his best friend and the blonde. 

He found Luke with a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit in his hand and Calum looking over his shoulder. He could hear the frustration in Luke’s voice as he tried to vocalize the letters. Calum’s hand was rubbing small circles on his back when the blonde got to a specifically difficult page, almost as though he was helping him through it. Michael’s heart raced and he didn’t know why he hated seeing Luke with Calum. 

Jesus Christ what is wrong with me he thought. Luke can have other friends, Luke should have other friends. He needed to get Calum away from Luke before he lost it.   
“Sorry to interrupt this schooling session,” Michael coldly stated. “But I have a restaurant to run and I’m not paying you to ditch.” Luke immediately looked down with a guilty look on his face and Calum stood up confused. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Calum asked. “I clean up the restaurant when you come out and talk to him every night and don’t complain so why are you bitching about it when I do it?” 

“You’re a worker, I’m paying you to work.” he reiterated. The chef stayed firm even when Calum looked at him with a disbelieving glare.

“It was my fault, please don’t blame him.” Michael and Calum broke their staring match and turned to Luke, who was still sitting with his eyes on the ground. The blonde was straightening out the books Calum had brought into a neat little pile. Suddenly, Michael was filled with guilt. He hadn’t meant to upset Luke, or Calum. What was wrong with him? While he was lost in his thoughts, Luke had stood up and given Calum the books back with a small smile which Calum returned with the promise of meeting up here again tomorrow. He was broken out of his trance with a soft, “Bye Mike.” from Luke

“I’m sorry, it’s been a long day. See you tomorrow?” he sheepishly asked. 

The blonde smiled at him and Michael’s stomach jumped. “Promise.” 

Luke turned around and started walking back to the shantytown, leaving Michael and Calum to themselves. Calum smirked as he watched Michael look after Luke with a longing expression. 

“You’re jealous.” Calum stated amused. 

Michael looked at him in disbelief. “Jealous? Of what? Your friendship with Luke?” he scoffed. 

“You’re just upset that I was hanging out with him instead of you. If you like him so much, why don’t you marry him?” Calum snickered and Michael’s blood ran cold. 

“I don’t have time for this right now Calum, we have a restaurant to open in less than 30 minutes.” Michael’s face heated up as he dismissed the topic and went inside with the smirking sous chef following behind him. 

Michael was thankful that Calum didn’t bring it up again that night because he really didn’t have an answer to why he was so jealous. The two didn’t talk that much in the kitchen that night, with Calum holding back snarky comments and Michael replaying the day’s events in his mind.

It was safe to say that he didn’t get much sleep that night.


	7. Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

A week had gone by and Luke and Calum had practiced their reading every afternoon between lunch and dinner .Calum would grab Luke from the front of the store, take him to the back alley and patiently teach him as much as he could in their short time together . The two sat there for hours, ending whenever Michael would call Calum back in before dinner. 

Luke was feeling the best that he had in ages, but Michael, on the other hand, was not. Calum and Luke starting their readings every afternoon meant that Michael and Luke’s talks disappeared and honestly, he missed the blonde boy. He knew that he should have nothing but support for Luke, but a gnawing feeling had taken root in his stomach ever since the first lesson. He found his eyes wandering to the back window a dozen times an hour, hoping to catch a glimpse of the younger boy immersed in his studies. But that wasn’t enough; Michael needed to be out there.

After a few minutes of thoughtful thinking, Michael had a plan. He collected some bread, butter, and a few of his favorite cheeses, put them on a plate and hustled outside. He pushed through the swinging doors with a smile on his face, finding the two boys sitting against the alley wall. 

“Hey, I thought you guys could use some food out here” said Michael cheerfully, glancing at Luke who was immersed in a worn copy of Velveteen Rabbit.

Calum looked questionable, he knew what Michael was doing but he just went with it. “Thanks man,” he turned to Luke and offered him some but the blonde shook his head and went back to his book. 

“Oh, but you’ll want some of this!” Michael said as he placed the platter on the ground and kneeled down. “This one’s gruyere and this one’s cheddar, and this one’s my favorite, it’s called manchego and it goes great with the bread and…”

“Sorry, I don’t take handouts” Luke firmly interrupted, throwing both of the other boys off. Calum could see his best friends face drop and his own eyebrows drew together as he looked down at the small blonde frantically reading. 

“You know Luke,” Michael started, Calum tensed up, not looking forward to the words that would come out of his mouth next. “You’re 19 right?” Luke finally looked up from his book and nodded at the chef. “It’s kinda pathetic how you’re almost 20 and don’t know how to read, no?” 

Calum felt a rush of anger and stood up. Much to the confusion of the other boys , he walked back to the doors, cheese plate in hand, and turned around. 

“Ok. I don’t know what the hell that was but, I’m not dealing with one of your moods right now. Michael, get yourself together.” he huffed before slamming the swinging door shut behind him. Granted, it wasn’t as dramatic as he would have liked but it would do. 

Luke and Michael sat on the ground of the dirty alley in silence. Luke kept his eyes trained on the same page of his book, but his wide eyes and constant blinking suggested to Michael that he was trying to keep away the tears. 

Michael sighed, obviously his plans to get those stupid feelings out of his stomach gone were hopeless. He sat across from Luke and leaned his head against the brick wall, shutting his eyes. How could I have fucked this up any worse? he thought to himself. He paused for a moment before speaking, not wanting to dig himself any deeper into the hole.

“ I’m really sorry, I really didn’t mean that. I just...I just saw you with Calum all the time and we haven’t been speaking like we used to in the afternoons because of that,” he started, rubbing the back of his neck as a blush filled his face. “He was mean to you and when you guys started getting all buddy-buddy I kinda felt forgotten.”

The two sat in silence for a minute until Luke finally closed his book and turned to look at Michael with a calming gaze.

“You’re my best friend you know? Luke said softly. “I never really thanked you properly for all that you’ve done for me. You let me sell here, I’m actually making money now! It’s not much, but I can’t complain. You helped me when I passed out and defended me from Calum countless times. I just never thought that I would get the chance to learn how to read and when Calum offered I guess I got a little too caught up.”

Michael got up from his spot across the alley and moved to sit next to the blonde. Luke inched closer to him and the chef knew it was going to be okay between the two of them. His stomach rumbled; Damn Calum for taking my cheese plate it he thought before he remembered something. 

“Wait, why didn’t you want any of the cheese I brought out?” 

Luke furrowed his eyebrows. “What are you talking about?” 

“You said something about not taking handouts, but you know I just thought you would be hungry and…” the chef stopped there, afraid he had hurt the younger boy’s feelings.

“It’s just the way I was raised I guess.” he shrugged. Michael turned his head in surprise, this was the first time Luke had ever mentioned his family or even his childhood. The blonde’s wide blue eyes suggested that Michael wasn’t the only one who was startled at his words. He didn’t want to push Luke into telling him about his family or why he was homeless at 19, but this wasn’t the first time he’d thought about it. If Luke didn’t want to tell him he didn’t have too, but Michael wanted him to know he would always be open to listening. He was about to open his mouth and tell Luke that, but he was stopped. 

“I left home when I was 16.” 

“Luke, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to...” 

“No,” Luke interrupted. “I want to tell you. You deserve to know why I’m even here.” He let out an audible sigh before continuing. 

“I grew up in North Dakota, with my parents and brothers. We had a large plot of land where we grew corn and we weren’t wealthy, but we weren’t poor either. I never had to worry about food or any of that. I remember watching my Ben and Jack walking to school everyday and wishing I could go with them, I couldn't wait until I was old enough. I would always sit with them while they were complaining about doing homework, and I never understood why they hated it so much. There’s just so much to learn so if you have the opportunity to wouldn’t you want to take it?” 

Michael didn’t really know what to say, but a rush of guilt passed through him. He remembered scraping by primary school with average grades and groaning to John to let him just miss one day when he didn’t feel like getting out of bed. 

“Anyway,” Luke continued, breaking Michael out of his trance. “I was counting down the days until I could go to school but my dad made a shitty deal with a neighbor that messed everything up. I couldn’t even tell you what the deal was about but it took my brothers out of school and put all of us to work on the farm constantly. We all thought that it would be a one season kind of thing you know, but it just wasn’t,” he chuckled weakly. “I remember when I was about 10, people in town started noticing, they even tried to talk to my parents about the dangers of overfarming and overworking and all that, but my dad thought it was all bullshit. Even if he’d believed them, we had to keep farming because we needed the money. So I never ended up going to school or learning to read or anything. I was 16 when I got kicked out, and I’ve been moving around ever since, just trying to find a place where I’m happy.I’m happy here now though.” 

Michael smiled knowing Luke was finally happy and learning to read, but the smile was quickly ended when he comprehended the last part of Luke’s story. 

“Kicked out? Why would they kick you out?” Michael asked, bewildered at the thought of someone doing that to their child. 

“Isn’t it obvious?” Luke chuckled, but there was no humor behind it. “I’m gay.”

Michael didn’t know what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t that. It was quiet for a minute or two but it felt like hours for Luke, just waiting for the chef to break the silence. 

“That’s…that’s why your parents kicked you out?” Michael finally stuttered out. 

“Yeah.” he replied, and Michael noticed how shaky his voice was too. 

“I don’t care, y’know? Like your sexuality isn’t going to make me treat you any different.” The eldest quickly assured, trying to reassure Luke any way he could. It was a miracle how steady and calm his words came out because after that bombshell from Luke his mind was a mess. 

Despite all the clutter going on in his mind, the second Luke looked up at him with his wide blue eyes and grateful expression all the thoughts turned to mush. The only thing Michael could think about was Luke. 

He was broken out of his trance when the blonde almost rocketed himself into the chef’s arms blubbering out words he couldn’t even understand. Michael wrapped his arms around the younger boy and ran his hands through the blonde's hair in an attempt to calm him down. Eventually, Luke quieted down and it was silent between the two; the only sounds were the bell on the front of the restaurant’s door chiming to indicate a new customer and the murmur from the restaurants. Michael knew Calum could handle the crowd tonight and frankly, he didn’t want to let go of Luke. But he ended up breaking the silence. 

“Lu, how...how did you know?” 

“What, that I was gay?” 

“No that you were an alien. Of course you doofus” Michael teased, trying to relieve some of the tension. 

“I don’t know, I guess I always kinda knew something was up, but then when I met one of my brother’s friends I realized that I was really different. Whenever I saw him I got all jittery and nervous. I remember being upset that he was there to hang out with Jack. How stupid is that?” Luke giggled” “Being angry that you older brother’s friend wouldn’t hang out with you?” Michael made a weak attempt to laugh but Luke just continued. “ But I made the mistake of telling my other brother about it and he immediately told my mom and that was that.” 

Michael nodded and threw his arm around Luke who snuggled tightly into his chest, feeling like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. As the sun went down, Luke’s breathing became slow and steady, falling asleep in the warm summer nights breeze. Michael knew his back was going to be messed up the next morning, but tomorrow was Sunday and he could lay down in his bed for as long as he wanted after brunch. He looked down at the sleeping boy in his lap and smiled softly.

He was so fucked.


	8. Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

The next day when Michael woke up, his back was sore, he was hungry, and Luke was drooling on his shirt, but he couldn’t be more fond. Suddenly last night’s events hit him like a train, and a pit of sadness found its way into Michael’s stomach. Kicked out at 16? It was still unbelievable to him that someone could do that to Luke. Luke, the sweetest and most humble boy he’s ever met. 

The chef ran his hair through Luke’s hair-which was surprisingly soft given his bathing routine. He lightly jostled the blonde’s shoulder to wake him up and breathed in the warmth of the small boy. Luke let out a small squeak and rubbed his eyes before looking up at Michael with his tired blue eyes and a dopey grin. The two were completely consumed by the early morning sounds and unspoken feelings. Luke was starting to fall in love with Michael and he was trying his very best to hide it. He couldn’t handle losing Michael but he knew at one point his feelings would overtake his common sense; he had taken a liking to him the second he saw him, and it didn’t go away. Michael, on the other hand, had no idea what was going on in his mind. He knew he felt something for the blonde, but he didn’t know what to do about it. 

“I better get to the restaurant,” Michael said, standing up and stretching out his back. “Are you going to sell papers?”

Luke’s smiled dropped. “What time is it?” he asked, standing up frantically. “I gotta get to the store before the brunch rush.” 

The chef nodded and stood up himself. “Come find me when you and Cal are done, okay? I’ll make us some dinner.”

“Michael,” Luke spoke. “You don’t have to do that, you shouldn’t do that, I’m fine.”

But the chef scoffed teasingly, “Are you saying you don’t want to try my food? I’m hurt Luke,” but then he got more serious. “Please, I’ve got some new recipes and I want your opinion on them. You would be doing me a huge favor.”

“I know absolutely nothing about food Mike.”

“Neither does the average customer. Just tell me if it tastes good.” he countered. 

Luke still looked unsure but nodded nonetheless and walked down to the end of the alley before turning around with a “See you later!” 

Michael stood there smiling like an idiot until he saw Luke’s hat on the ground. He made a mental note to go and give it back to him that afternoon before walking through the doors to see Calum cracking eggs into a bowl and humming along to some song on the record player. About an hour after Luke and Michael fell asleep last night, Calum went out to check on the two. He didn’t expect to find Luke wrapped around Michael and Michael’s head rested on top of Luke’s, but he can’t say he was all that surprised. He had suspected that there was something going on between the two, even if they themselves couldn’t see it, and Michael had always been a cuddler. But Calum would be lying if he said he hadn't seen the way that the older boy lit up whenever Luke was brought up. Calum waited until the brunch preparations had been made and it was just the two of them, sitting in the kitchen and enjoying a cup of coffee, to bring it up.

“How was your talk with Luke yesterday?” Calum broke the silence. “Everything work out?”

The chef smiled softly at the thought of the blonde, “Yeah, we’re all good.”

Calum nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “I saw you guys last night.” 

Michael choked on his drink; He hadn’t thought anyone, let alone Calum could have seen them. 

“I don’t know what’s going on between you two,” Calum quickly continued. “But I love you man, and nothing’s going to change that.” 

Michael let out a shaky breath and put down his mug. “I don’t know what’s going on Cal, I’ve never felt like this for someone before. And he’s a guy! I should be feeling like this for a girl, not Luke. What would Uncle John think? He would hate me!”

At that, Calum moved to pull his best friend into a hug. Michael collapsed into his arms, and Calum felt wet drops fall onto his shoulder. He shushed the confused boy and rubbed small circles on his back. 

“Don’t think about that man, just think about Luke. I had to admit it, but dammit he’s such a great guy, it’s so obvious he’s into you.” Calum paused and said quieter, “And sometimes it’s obvious that you like him too.” 

Michael groaned in frustration and his best friend chuckled softly. “Talk to him Mike. It’ll be okay.” The chef nodded and stood up, grabbed the two coffee mugs and walked back to the kitchen.

The oldest was fortunate enough that only minutes later the servers came out of their break room and unlocked the front doors. Customers started to file in and Michael was able to put his emotions aside for a few hours and focus on the restaurant. 

As soon as WonderBar’s front doors were closed at 2:00, Michael nearly collapsed in relief. He was crazy to think that he could sleep against a brick wall then be able to work a full day. Passing the last plate to Calum for him to dry, the oldest let out a huge yawn.

“Dude, go to bed,” Calum said. “You must be exhausted, I can finish up here no worries.”

Michael just nodded his thanks and untied his chefs shirt and threw it into the laundry basket, he could deal with that later. He walked upstairs to his apartment and jumped straight into bed, not even bothering with his shoes. A few seconds later, he was out like a light. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Michael finally woke up, he was not ready to take on the day. He was always infamous for sleeping too late as a child, but with the early responsibilities from the restaurant he was used to longer days and shorter nights. He took a quick shower before pulling on a fresh white chef coat and an old pair of black pants. Walking downstairs to the kitchen, the first thing he saw was Luke’s paperboy hat and he cursed to himself. He looked at the time and saw he would have enough to go to Luke’s shantytown and return it before he needed to start prepping for the lunch hour. 

Grabbing the hat, he left a note for Calum and began a brisk walk to the other side of town. The crisp morning air brought him out of his haze, and soon Michael found himself looking forward to this unplanned morning encounter with Luke. He teased himself with thoughts of telling Luke how he really felt, even letting himself fantasize about about a future for the two of them. 

A few blocks from the shantytown, Michael was abruptly brought out of his thoughts by the sound of yells marked with a few whimpers. Adrenaline rushing, he followed the noise into a back alley, where a group of young boys, maybe fourteen, in school uniforms, were kicking someone on the ground. He was about to step up and stop the school boys until he heard a familiar voice. 

“Please….please… stop..!” and Michael froze. It was Luke, his Luke. He was all ready to go and bash the bullies heads in until he heard what they were saying to the blonde. 

“Fucking faggot” one of them sneered with a kick to the blonde’s stomach. 

“C’mon guys, I think the fags had enough fun today.” from another one. With one last kick to Luke’s leg, the ringleader waved the boys off towards the school ground, kicking Luke’s papers around as they went. Michael watched in shock as the blonde groaned in pain trying to stand up. Despite Luke’s injuries, Michael’s mind was racing with other thoughts. Is this how people would treat me? What would happen to the restaurant? 

He was so torn between Luke and what other people thought of him that he almost started crying himself. This wasn’t what he wanted, he wanted to be with Luke with no questions asked. But he realized that couldn’t happen, if he were to have an open relationship with Luke, or any other guy for that matter, business would flop and he’d have no one to blame but himself. He would be responsible for putting Calum and all the employees out of a job, and he would have to stop doing the one thing he loved, the one thing he had left. 

The older boy took one last glance at Luke’s hat in his hand and the blonde boy covered in bruises in front of him before turning around. He felt tears in his eyes, but he knew he was doing the right thing for his business. This was just a phase he told himself. I just haven’t met the right girl yet. He wiped at his eyes before walking back into the restaurant. Calum came bouncing up to his best friend, eager to see how it all went, but when he saw red eyes and Luke’s hat bunched up in Michael’s hand, he backed off. Michael shook his head at him and placed Luke’s hat on the stand, tugged on his chefs shirt and got to work, without uttering a single word.


	9. Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Calum let Michael be silent for the lunch rush, but as soon as the business slowed, he corned his best friend, eager to hear what had caused Michael’s earlier dismal mood towards the blonde. Michael, however, was not having it.

“Look, nothing happened between us and nothing ever will.” he snapped.

“Ok, obviously something happened,” Calum commented before softening his voice. “Did he like reject you or something?”

“Reject me? No Calum that’s ridiculous. Just…just forget about him. It doesn’t matter.”

Calum left it at that. He had known Michael long enough to know that if he didn’t want to talk, he wasn’t going to. The clock on the wall showed it was 20 past 2:00- Luke was going to come by any minute. Calum sighed and took off his apron; a little bit of drama wasn’t going to stop him from teaching the blonde to read.

When Calum had told Michael that he was going, the chef has mumbled a “whatever” before turning to the dirty dishes in the sink and starting to wash them. Calum rolled his eyes at the stubborn boy in front of him and went out of the back alley.

He was surprised to see that Luke was already there, a folded out newspaper covered his face and Calum chuckled.

“Think it’s time to move on from The Velveteen Rabbit?” he teased. Luke pulled down the paper and Calum’s grin immediately fell.

“What the hell happened to you?” he exclaimed, running over to the blonde, whose face was covered in bruises and specks of dried blood.

“It’s nothing Cal.”

“Nothing my ass Luke! Hold on, let me go get you some ice.” The blonde tried to protest but let out a painful cough when he tried to stand up. That only prompted Calum to sit him back down and hurry back into the kitchen for a bag of ice. When Calum rushed into the kitchen, he was met with Michael’s back washing dishes and humming along to a sad record he must have put on when Calum had left.

The chef turned around when he heard Calum digging through the ice box. Calum turned, feeling Michael’s gaze, looked up and let out a humorless laugh.

“It’s for Luke. Someone must’ve known he was an easy target.” he said before walking back outside with his bag of ice.

Guilt began to fill Michael’s stomach, and he finished drying the last few dishes before his curiosity had gotten the best of him . Wiping his hands on his apron, he walked over to the small window above the vegetable cabinet where he could see out to the back alley.

As soon as he caught sight of the blonde, his heart sunk. Both of his eyes were tinted green and blue, and there was a cut on the left side of his face. Michael was more concerned about the boy’s stomach than his face- he had seen the schoolboys kick his stomach and heard Luke’s groans of pain. But there was no way he could go out there, Calum already knew something was up between the two of them and if he were to go out of there and mention that he saw Luke get beat up and didn’t do anything, everyone would think- no everyone would know how much of an asshole Michael truly was.

_It’s for the best_ he reminded himself before pushing all of his thoughts on the blonde away and walking back to the sink. He rested in hands on the edge of the sink and buried his face in them. He knew he had fucked up again, but he couldn’t be with Luke. It had taken him years to build up WonderBar and he couldn’t just throw that all away for some boy.

But Luke wasn’t just some boy; Luke was polite and charming and Michael thought he was beautiful. The chef groaned into his hands in frustration. He wished the dinner rush would come along soon so he could get the blonde off of his mind. He turned up the record player to try to drown out his thoughts as he dried the dishes and stacked them up. Looking at the clock, it was only 3:00, so he had two more hours to waste. There were still orders coming into the kitchen but Michael left those to the other cooks.

He grabbed one of the newspapers by the coat rack and started reading it to occupy his time. There were only so many stories he could read about the Great Depression without feeling depressed himself, so it didn’t take him long to put down the paper. Time was ticking by slowly and it was only 4:00, much too early to pull Calum in. He decided to get a start on dinner and began forming hamburger patties in his hand. Calum eventually came in with a bag of melted ice and a limping Luke.

“Hey man, can Luke go upstairs and lay down for a bit?” Calum asked.

Luke tried to interrupt and claim he was fine, but Calum gave him a look that shut him up.

“Luke? What the hell happened?” Michael exclaimed. He was no actor but he had to seem concerned for the blonde. Calum could see right through it and gave Michael a “we’ll talk about this later” look before repeating his earlier question.

“Yeah, yeah of course. Do you need any help or anything?” Michael asked.

“Mike, if you can lead him up there, I’ll get some more ice.” The chef almost started protesting but nodded and wrapped his arm around the blonde. Luke naturally moved in closer and Michael panicked. He kept his arm around him but backed up a little bit, creating more space between the two. Michael could feel Luke look up at him confused but he ignored it and helped him up the stairs.

“Michael?” Luke asked quietly once the eldest had tucked him into his bed. The blonde reached out with grabby hands towards the chef and Michael was so close to giving in. But at that moment Calum walked in with the bag of ice and Michael took that opportunity to say an awkward “Feel better Luke” and walk out of the room.

He could feel Luke and Calum’s eyes on him as he walked out, but he focused his eyes on the ground and ignored his pounding chest as he walked back to the kitchen.

“What the hell is up with you two?” Michael heard a few minutes later. He turned around to see a sympathetic look on Calum’s face. “You didn’t even flinch earlier when I told you he was beat up. What was up with that?”

Michael was silent and Calum nodded to himself. “I’m really rooting for you two,” he started and Michael nearly whimpered. “Someone like Luke isn’t gonna come around too often, I wouldn’t take that for granted if I were you.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a long night; Michaels feet were tired and his head ached. When he finally stacked up the last plate, he took off his apron and headed upstairs. He forgot that he had offered up his bed to Luke so when he saw the small blonde in his bed he was startled to say the least. Luke had somehow managed to curl his long body into a tight little ball as he snuggled into one of Michael’s pillows. He looked so peaceful that Michael was hesitant to wake him, but he wasn’t about to go a second night without sleeping on a bed in one week.

But it was late and he didn’t want to just kick Luke out onto the street. Maybe the bed is big enough for both of us he thought as he changed into his pajama pants and cotton shirt. He didn’t want to just bombard Luke and hop into the bed, so he lightly shook his shoulder. The blonde quietly groaned and cuddling farther into Michael’s sheets. The chef chuckled and ran his hands through the blonde locks. The idea of holding back his feelings for the paperboy vanished into the night, and in this moment Michael felt nothing but affection for Luke.

“Lu, c’mon you gotta wake up for me.” Michael said.

“Mike?” Luke asked, looking up at the chef with his bruised eyes.

“Yeah bud, it’s me. Scoot over will you, I gotta get some sleep too.”

That certainly woke Luke up. His heart raced at the idea of having another night with Michael like the one they had in the alley. Michael’s chest was so warm and so soft; it was the best night of sleep that he had had in the last three years. As soon as Michael slid under the sheets, he hesitantly wrapped his arm around the blonde, pulling him into his chest.

Luke looked up at the chef and smiled at him. Michael’s eyes were closed and he looked exhausted. The blonde couldn’t believe this was happening, _does this mean that Michael likes me?_ he thought to himself. He grew confidence as Michael’s hand found its way back into his hair and his grip around Luke tightened. There was no way he had taken all of the signs wrong, and Calum might have mentioned to him that he’d never seen Michael as happy as he is now.

Taking a deep breath, he looked back at Michael. His eyes were closed and his lips parted; Luke thought he looked stunning. The blonde leaned up and softly placed his lips on Michaels.

As soon as Michael felt Luke’s chapped lips on his own, he felt all gooey inside. He melted into the kiss, and for the first time in months was completely at ease. But just as Luke wrapped his arms around Michael’s neck, he realized what was happening. He panicked and pushed Luke so hard that he fell off the bed. The chef’s heart was racing and he felt as though his throat was closing up.

It was one hell of a kiss, Michael knew that, but it was with _Luke_ \- how could he have let this happen. Just as he felt like he was going to throw up he heard a small voice from the floor.

“Michael? I’m sorry,” Luke stuttered out. “I just thought-”

“No.” Michael harshly interrupted. His insecurities had gotten the best of him and he had snapped. “I’m not like you or any of you kind. I should’ve known a faggot like you would pull something like that.”

Luke scrambled back up to Michael, not believing any of the words coming out of his mouth. “You don’t, you can’t! he exclaimed, tears beginning to race down his face. “You don’t mean that. Michael please! Tell me you don’t mean that. Tell me you’re joking.”

“Sorry Luke, I don’t waste my time with fags, wouldn’t want to be beat up by the schoolboys.” he mocked coldly.

The blonde froze. “You saw?” he asked, voice cracking. “You saw them hurting me and you didn’t do anything?”

Michael felt his blood run cold, and for a minute he began to realize what he was saying. But he couldn’t stop now, he was too far and he had too much at stake. “Like I said, I don’t waste my time on fags Luke.”

He got out of the bed and started walking towards Luke, who was quick to get to his feet. “Get out.” he demanded, and the blonde didn’t have to be told twice. He wiped his eyes, grabbed his blood stained jacket, and ran out. Michael slammed the door shut on him, and that was that.


	10. Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Michael was numb once he slammed the door on Luke. He was numb when he took his shower, and he was numb when he went to bed. His face was hot and there was a buzzing in his ear when he finally lay down in bed for the second time that night. But as soon as his head hit his pillow, he became overwhelmed with the familiar scent of cheap laundry soap. His vision turned blurry and his heart started racing at the realization of what he had said-what he had done to Luke.

The sheets were a sick reminder of what he could have had with Luke, if only he hadn’t ruined it. Luke had been too forgiving of Michael recently, but this was too much: the blonde would never forgive him. Michael choked back a sob as he shakily stood up and ripped apart the bed sheets that were in his hands, unable to cope with what he had done.

He hastily wiped his eyes, but the tears kept falling. Grabbing his coat and Luke’s hat that he still hadn’t returned, Michael ran downstairs. Only when he stepped outside and noticed that night had fallen did he realize how disoriented he was, and his eyes were burning in a way that they hadn’t since John’s funeral. Street lights illuminating the way, Michael began the brisk walk to the shantytowns. He tried to come up with something to say to the blonde, but he knew words couldn’t make up for what he had said.

Luke had gone to him and trusted him- and Michael had betrayed that trust. Not only had he berated him, but he had pushed him down, physically hurting him, and the older boy couldn’t imagine ever forgiving himself. And it was all because he was scared of what other people would think. It was then that Michael realized he would give up everything for the blonde; he would close the restaurant in an instant if it meant he could have Luke.

As he turned into the shantytown he couldn’t help his nerves. What would Luke say? What would he do? God, the chef hoped he wasn’t crying- Michael didn’t deserve Luke’s tears. Passing a familiar street sign, Michael weakly chuckled, realizing he couldn’t remember the last time he needed to use it. He knew his way to Luke’s shelter like the back of his hand.

He weaved his way through the other shelters as he heard thunder rumbling in the distance, which only pushed him to find Luke faster as he knew the blonde wasn’t a fan of thunderstorms. But when he got to Luke’s shelter, it was unoccupied. The tent that used to be there gone and all that was left was dirt. Michael’s heart stopped as he dropped Luke’s hat to the ground.

“Luke?” He whispered quietly as more stupid tears started running down his cheeks. But it was no use, the blonde was gone. Michael fell to the ground, heaving dry sobs. This was all his fault. There was no one else to blame.

Michael didn’t even realize he had woken everyone up until someone grabbed his shoulder. The man knelt down in the dirt in front of him, his face obscured in the twilight.

“Luke?” He cried, shooting his head up, only to be met with an older man looking at him with pity. The man tried to calm Michael down, but nothing helped, if anything it made him feel worse. He didn’t deserve any pity when he was the one who fucked up. He felt numb all over again as he was led into the man’s shelter and handed a ragged blanket.

Michael’s sobs turned into weak sniffles as the man handed him a tin cup full of stream water. He took a seat across from Michael and waited for the chef to completely calm down.

“Andrew” the man said after a few minutes and Michael furrowed his eyebrows. “My names Andrew, but you can call me Andy.”

Michael nodded in understanding and replied, “Michael Clifford.”

“I know,” Andy said, “Luke talked about you all the time.” The chef took a shaky breath and wiped his eyes again. “”You wanna tell me what happened back there Michael?” Andy asked slowly, as if he was testing the boundaries.

“I fucked up” he stated bluntly, unaware of how else to put it.

“Does this have to do with Luke leaving?” Andy asked.

“Do you know where he went?” Michael exclaimed. “Do you have any idea? Please, I...I need him.”

Andy put down his tin of water and looked back at the boy in front of him. Michael’s face was blotched with red and his cheeks were dry with tears; he was looking at Andy with so much hope and desperation. When Andy shook his head no, Michael’s face deflated and he put his head in his hands, trying desperately not to start crying again. He had lost Luke and San Francisco was huge, how was he supposed to find him again?

“You know, Luke was just about as bad as you are right now when I saw him earlier.”

Michael’s head shot straight up. “You saw him? Was he crying? Please don’t tell me he was crying. What did he do? What direction did he go in?” He asked frantically.

“He didn’t say where he was going, he just quickly packed up and took off. I only saw him leave ‘cause I was awake, he wouldn’t tell me what happened, but I assumed it had something to do with you. You were his whole life, kid.”

Michael didn’t know what to say. He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he was the reason Luke left. He would never forgive himself for what he did. He tried to think positive, maybe Luke was just taking a break, or maybe he was just moving areas in the same shantytown? Michael cursed at his own stupidity, there’s no way Luke would do any of those things; It left the chef drowning in his own shame and guilt. It had been silent in the tent before Andy spoke up.

“He didn’t take everything, you know. He left something for you and your friend Caleb, I think?” He said.

“Calum,” Michael corrected.

Andy nodded and got up and walked towards the other side of the shelter. He pulled out two things, but because of the dim light Michael didn’t recognize them at first. Andy held out the tattered copy of The Velveteen Rabbit and Michael chuckled weakly. He started thinking about Calum and what he would say, but when he saw the second thing Andy was holding his eyes widened in recognition.

_Michael was bummed out. He knew it was going to be a boring day at work when he woke up to the sounds of pouring rain on his rooftop. Business was slow, but he was more disappointed at the thought of Luke not coming to the shop today. No one was outside and the rain would smudge the black newspaper ink._ _He had told the other workers to go home when they arrived because he knew he could hold down the restaurant for that day, and he even told Calum to sleep in and take the day off. Hell, he didn’t even bother to put on his chef coat, settling for the “comfy outfit” he reserved for rain days. He was sitting alone in the kitchen in his grey sweatpants and black sweatshirt reading the paper he had picked up from his favorite paperboy yesterday surrounded by the soft jazz which came from the record player in the corner. The front door of the restaurant opened and he heard a small cry of “Michael?”. He wasn’t expecting customers today, but he especially wasn’t expecting his customers to know and call him by his first name. But when he walked out of the kitchen to the store, he saw a drenched Luke._

_The blonde’s hair was flat on his forehead, his clothes stuck to his lanky body, and Michael could see he was visibly shaking._

_“Luke?” Michael exclaimed. He pulled the blonde back into the kitchen, ran upstairs to his bedroom, and grabbed a pair of clothes and a towel for Luke before going back downstairs. “Here Lu, dry off and put these on. Did you have breakfast already?” He asked as Luke was walking towards the bathroom. The blonde began to protest and say he was fine but Michael rolled his eyes teasingly at him “Pancakes or waffles with your tea? C’mon, business is dead today, you’d be doing me a favor.” He asked. Luke blushed before heading into the bathroom._

_Michael was already measuring all of the ingredients into a bowl when Luke emerged. The chef felt his heart swell when he saw how big his clothes were on the blonde: his sweatpants dragged across the floor and his sweatshirt reached past Luke’s hands._

_Luke took a seat at the small table on the side of the kitchen and watched Michael work. He was always fascinated at the boy’s ability to cook anything he wanted whenever he wanted; whenever he tried to make bread with his mother it had blown up on the stove. When Michael had finished the waffles (Luke’s favorite) he brought them to the table and pulled up a stool for himself._

_T_ _he two sat there all morning, talking about whatever came to mind and enjoying each other's presence. Michael would recall the pranks he and Calum used to pull on their 2nd grade teacher that almost always involved a garden snake, and Luke would tell Michael about the lady with a yappy small dog in her purse who buys a paper every Tuesday. In the afternoon, rain was still hammering down and Michael made lunch for them: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Luke and tomato soup for himself. Michael made another pot of tea and Luke tried to read some of the comics from the newspaper; Michael helped him some, but he was pleasantly surprised and immensely proud of how much the blonde could read on his own._

_The rain started slowing down around dinner time; Michael tried to persuade Luke to stay for dinner but the blonde felt guilty enough about Michael making him two meals. The chef agreed as long as he took a piece of bread in case he got hungry during the night, and Luke was once again surprised at how deeply someone could care about him._

_Luke grabbed his clothes from the drying rack and walked towards the bathroom to change, but Michael’s voice stopped him._

_“Why are you changing? Your clothes are still a bit damp.” He questioned._

_“Well I’m not gonna walk home naked, am I?” Luke teased._

_“Don’t worry about it, you can keep the clothes you’re wearing now. I’m not letting you walk home in damp clothes, it’s getting colder Lu and I don’t want you getting sick.”_

_“Michael, it’s September. I’ll be fine” the blonde assured him, but Michael wasn’t having it._

_“At least just keep it until it does get cold, then you’ll always have something that will keep you warm.”_

_Luke knew better than to argue, and smiled to himself as he thanked Michael. He felt safe in the sweatshirt, like the older boy was always giving him a big hug._

Michael hadn’t seen that sweatshirt since Luke had left the restaurant wearing it. He felt his heart break when Andy pushed it into his hands. Luke didn’t want anything to do with Michael anymore, that much was obvious. There wasn’t anything left for him to do here.

Michael thanked Andy and walked out of the shantytown. He slowly made his way back to his apartment above the restaurant, not sure how he was going to be able to work a full day the next morning. He left the copy of The Velveteen Rabbit on one of the tables for Calum and carried the sweatshirt upstairs. Tugging off his shirt, he slipped on the sweatshirt he had once given to Luke and become overwhelmed once again of how much it smelt like him. He got back into his bed and pulled the covers up, it felt like he was surrounded by the blonde. And if he cried himself to sleep that night, well, no one had to know.


	11. Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slight trigger warning: there are small mentions of a panic attack

Luke began to sniffle as he walked alongside the dirt road. Rain had begun pouring down the second he had left his shantytown, and every rumble of thunder made him jump. The small backpack was digging into his shoulders and his feet were sore. It felt like he had been walking for hours, but he knew he couldn’t take stop yet. Luke had no idea where he was going, but he hoped that wherever he ended up he could find some farm work and start over once again. He was sick of packing up and leaving all the time. He’d really thought that San Francisco could be his home.

A particularly loud rumble scared Luke out of his thoughts. He made the mistake of thinking of the time Michael had held him close and whispered comforting words to him during a big storm, for the memory only sharpened the ache in his chest. Michael hadn’t just hurt him, he had managed to break the blonde into a million pieces within a minute. But Luke couldn’t help but blame himself: if he had been able to control himself, then he would be sleeping in his arms right now- instead of being drenched and mindlessly walking in the middle of the night. The blonde wished he hadn’t returned Michael’s sweatshirt, but he didn’t think he could relive any of the memories. And besides, he didn’t take handouts.

Dim streetlights led him on his search for a new “home”, but he wanted to get as far away from San Francisco as he could. Luke had passed a sign earlier which read “Stockton-75 miles”, which had proved to be enough to motivate him for the past few miles. He was eager to quickly find farm work to occupy himself with, and he knew that some hard manual labor might provide a good distraction. It was about half an hour later when he came across a small town. Physically and mentally exhausted, the blonde looked for places to spend the night. 

The only place that was covered was the patio front of a small cafe. The plan was for him to sleep for a few hours and leave before anyone could see him. Using his backpack as a pillow, Luke curled his body into a wet ball, closed his eyes and sighed to himself, hoping when he woke up this would all just be a bad dream.

Luke was startled awake when he felt someone shaking his shoulder. He sat up too quickly and felt dizzy. “Are you ok boy?” He heard from a unfamiliar voice. The blonde opened his eyes and was met with the soft eyes of an older man. All of the memories from the night before came back to him and his breath hitched. It hadn’t been a dream, it was all real Luke looked around and panicked; it seemed like a good plan last night, skipping town, but now he had no idea where he was.

Luke felt like his throat was closing in and his eyes were brimming with tears-he hadn’t been this scared since he had been 16 and on his own for the first time. His eyes widened as he looked at the man in front of him, trying to silently communicate his helplessness. The man immediately rushed back into the house and Luke felt his throat begin to close, the weight of his situation and pure exhaustion finally catching up with him. The man ran back out, this time holding a glass of water. He grabbed one of Luke’s hands and coaxed him to slowly drink.

The two sat in silence until Luke had calmed down, and eventually the blonde decided to speak up. 

“I’m looking for farm work” he finally croaked out, looking down and playing with his fingers.

“Farm work?” The man asked incredulously. “You don’t want to do that.”

Now Luke just thought the universe was fucking with him. The only thing he was capable of doing besides selling expensive newspapers was farm work, and even then he remembered spending more time hiding between the stalks of corn than actually working. What else was he supposed to do? He audibly sighed and rested his head in his hands. 

“Why not?” He mumbled, defeated.

“There’s been a drought in the midwest, all this rain we’ve gotten in the last week won’t even make a dent. I had family out there who moved sold their land and moved away, best decision they made I’d say. There’s been some weird things happening around there: crops dying and jack rabbits everywhere I’ve heard.” The man softly chuckled. 

Luke groaned, “What the hell am I supposed to do?” He asked, mainly to himself. 

“Y’know, Stockton isn’t too far from here, maybe another 60 miles, about an hour and a half by bus- tickets are like five bucks. It’s a young town, I’m sure you could find some work there.”

The blonde was too embarrassed to tell the man that he only had two dollars on him, but the blush on his cheek gave away the fact that something was wrong. The man noticed and started to pull out loose change from his pocket and Luke was quick to protest, but the man wasn’t having it. 

“Give me that paper in your bag and I’ll give you the money.” Luke turned to his backpack, where a soaked, blurred newspaper stuck out from the top. He must’ve grabbed it in his hasty packing. He grabbed it weakly, passing it to the man with a confused look on his face.

“Are you sure you want this? It’s near ruined”

“It’s no problem boy,” said the man, looking down at his watch. “The bus should be coming in 10 minutes right down the road, make sure you get on it and get off in Stockton alright?”

Luke nodded enthusiastically and grabbed his backpack before thanking the man profusely and running down the road until he reached the bus stop. He sat down on the bench and counted out five dollar coins that the man had given him. Eventually the bus arrived and Luke handed the coins over to the overweight driver and took a seat at the back of the bus. 

As the bus moved from dirt roads to larger paved roads, Luke realized he had gotten the best seat on the bus. The wind was blowing through his hair, and when he closed his eyes and breathed in he felt completely at ease. The bus stopped a couple of times, passengers coming in and going out, but Luke didn’t feel too scared anymore. He had left different cities many times. "I can do this" he thought and smiled a little. 

When the bus stopped in Stockton, Luke thanked the driver and stepped off the bus. The afternoon sun was hitting his back and there were beads of sweat collecting at the bottom of his neck. As he walked through the town he passed bread stores, hardware stores, toy stores, and countless restaurants. He found a park across the street from a school and sat on a bench under a shady tree. The blonde began dozing off, surrounded by the warm August air. He was awoken a little while later when he heard a school bell go off. Luke rubbed at his eyes and stretched his arms across the back of the bench, smiling at the reunion of parents and children going on right in front of him. His smile falted though when he remembered Calum’s reading lessons, but he quickly shook those thoughts out of his mind. 

Luke’s eyebrows furrowed when a certain boy walked out of the school and started walking down the street. He had seen that boy before: it was Harry Irwin. Luke quickly jumped off the bench and ran to cross the street. As he waited to cross the street his heart raced; if he could talk to Harry, he could find Ashton! The blonde sprinted across the street and started going down the street Harry was on. He didn’t know how to approach the boy, so he figured following him to find Ashton was the best plan.

Harry felt someone’s eyes on him the second he started walking home from school, but he couldn’t figure out who it was. This was the first week that Ashton had let him walk home from school alone, and he figured it was just his older brother seeing if he would go straight home like he was supposed to. However, he had turned around at one point and the man following him wasn’t Ashton. He spend up his pace and sighed in relief when he turned onto his street, but the man behind him also turned. Harry heard the man behind him begin to speak, but he didn’t stick around long enough to find out who it was. He sprinted down to his house and ran through the door. 

Ashton came out of the kitchen to greet his youngest sibling, but was confused to see him out of breath and terrified. “What happened?” He exclaimed, pulling the boy into his arms. 

“T-there was a m-man following me here!” Harry finally stuttered out, tears falling down his cheeks. Ashton was furious, who the hell would follow his little brother home? He knew he should never have let him walk home alone. He sat Harry down on the couch with a cup of iced tea before looking outside. He saw someone outside the house pacing outside. 

He slammed the door shut behind him, all ready to scream at this stranger who scared his brother, but when he took a good look at the boy in front of him, his anger faded and his eyes widened. 

“Luke?” He whispered. The boy was barely recognizable. His dirty clothes were stiff on his lanky body and his hair looked like a bird’s nest. His nails had been bitten into nothing, and the blue in his eyes stood out from the puffy pink that surrounded them. 

“Ash…” Luke started, but the older boy pulled him into a hug before he could get out Ashton’s name. Luke collapsed in his arms, pulling them both to the concrete sidewalk. He dug his head underneath Ashton’s chin and just breathed him in-something he hadn’t done in months. Before he knew it, tears were running down his cheeks, but for the first time in a long time, they were happy tears. 

The blonde tightened his grip on Ashton, amazing that he had found his best friend again. Sure, life had screwed him over a lot recently, but when he was holding onto Ashton all he could think about was how maybe the universe didn’t completely hate him.


	12. Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Ashton and Luke sat outside on the sidewalk until the sun started to set, neither wanting to let go of one another. The older boy had been filled with guilt the second he left Luke in San Francisco, but what else was he supposed to do? He needed to leave to give Lauren and Harry the best opportunities he possibly could. But that didn’t mean he didn’t worry about the blonde all the time, or that it didn’t hurt every time Lauren or Harry asked him when they were going to see “Lukey” again. 

The two finally pulled apart when Luke’s body started to shake from the cold air around them. Ashton wordlessly stood up and offered a hand and a soft smile to the blonde, eager to lead him into the warm house. Luke looked hesitant and opened his mouth to object, but Ashton gave him a look. 

“C’mon inside, Harry will be so excited once he realizes it’s you,” He joked. “And don’t get me started on Lauren, she’s been whining every time she has to color without you.”

That was enough for Luke to perk up and follow Ashton into the small house. When he walked through the door he was immediately hit with the smell of chili and an argument between his two favorite kids. 

“Harry, you cheated! It said to move six spaces not five!”

“I did move six spaces!”

“No you didn’t, you just don’t want to go down the chute!” 

Ashton walked in first while Luke stayed back in the doorway. 

“Alright you two,” he started. “Put the game away and stop arguing, where’s your Aunt?”

“Market.” Lauren grumbled, still upset over Harry’s cheating. 

Luke was grinning to himself and leaned against the threshold, they hadn’t changed a bit. He was so caught up in old memories that he didn’t notice Ashton motioning for him to come in. The older boy coughed a little bit and pulled Luke out of his trance. 

“Guys, I’ve got a surprise for you” and Luke took that opportunity to walk into the room. 

Harry and Lauren turned to the door in confusion until they saw the blonde. Lauren’s eyes widened as she recognized him as her old babysitter, but Harry’s were full of fear as he quickly glanced at the Luke, his face obscured by a late afternoon shadow. As Lauren ran to Luke and wrapped her arms around him, Harry started screaming and hid behind Ashton.

“Ash! It’s him! He’s the one who followed me home!”

Lauren turned herself, and Luke for that matter, around to look at her younger brother. “No Harry, look it’s Luke!” Harry sniffled and peaked his head out from behind Ashton.   
Luke slowly unwrapped Lauren’s arms from around his waist and knelt to the ground “I didn’t mean to scare you earlier bud, it was just so surprising seeing you I didn’t know what to say”

Harry wiped his eyes and moved to stand in front of Ashton. “Luke?” He asked softly, as if he couldn’t believe it. 

“Yeah little dude, it’s me” he responded and opened his arms. Harry immediately rushed into them, followed by Lauren and eventually Ashton when Luke gave him his classic “puppy-dog” eyes and opened his arms just a little bit wider. 

It was only a few minutes later when an older woman who Luke recognized as Ashton’s aunt walked through the door holding a grocery bag. She placed the groceries on the counter and turned to the unfamiliar boy standing in between her nephews with a sheepish smile.

“Mel, this is Luke,” Ashton said. 

“The Luke?” She asked; both Harry and Lauren nodded excitedly. “Well then, Lauren why don’t you set an extra place for him.”

Luke fit right in with the Irwins like he always had. He was tall enough to reach the plates for Lauren, helped Harry fold the napkins, and even helped Aunt Mel chop up the different vegetables for the dinner. And when they finally sat down to eat, Luke felt whole in a way that he hadn’t in years. 

It was after dinner when Lauren and Harry had gone to sleep and the dishes were done that Luke and Ashton finally sat down alone with a cup of tea on the couch overlooking the Irwin’s backyard to talk. It was quiet; Ashton didn’t want to pry and Luke didn’t think he could talk about Michael without feeling like he was going to throw up. The silence was heavy, and eventually Luke couldn’t take another second of it.

“I messed up Ashton.”

The older boy nodded, “All mistakes can be fixed y’know” but Luke shook his head. 

“Not this one Ash, he hates me. I fucking kissed him.”

Ashton let out a surprised noise and put down his tea. Luke had told him that he was gay at the end of one of their friendship feasts. The older boy was shocked but assured the blonde that he didn’t think any different of him. When he left the shantytown, he figured that Luke had a small crush on Michael, but with the way Michael had looked at Luke, Ashton had assumed that the feelings were mutual. 

“I kissed him, and he pushed me away,” Luke bluntly stated, surprising himself with the cold detachment of his voice. “And I packed up and left and got on a bus, then I saw Harry and here I am. I have about $2 and I have no clue where I am or what I’m going to do.”

The older boy took Luke’s empty mug and put it on the floor before pulling the small boy into his arms. “Here’s what’s gonna happen,” he started. “You’re gonna shower tonight and wash off all what’s happened these last fews days, then you’re gonna stay here with me, with us-” Luke tried to object but Ashton put a free hand over his mouth and continued. “Then I’m going to help you find a job, and you’re going to be okay again, Mel’s going to have more help around the house, Harry and Lauren are going to have their favorite ‘brother’ back, and I’m going to have my best friend again”

Ashton was true to his word, for that night Luke showered while Ashton set up a mattress bed for the blonde in his room. In the morning, Luke helped the kids get ready for school and even walked Harry to his school when he asked. When he came back, Ashton handed him a fresh pair of clothes and told him to “Get ready”. Luke took the clothes with a confused look on his face, but nonetheless followed the older boy’s orders. The two went out to the main town and popped into a few different stores to find Luke a job. 

They were about ready to quit after countless rejections due to his lack of education when they walked past an upscale restaurant Carl's. Ashton looked at the “Now Hiring” sign wearily, not wanting to push Luke back into the restaurant environment, but the blonde was determined and told Ashton he'd “Be right back”. Ashton was waiting outside when Luke came out a few minutes later with a big smile on his face, a pair of black pants, and the blue button up he was supposed to wear.

“I start tomorrow!”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“C’mon Mike, we’re opening in an hour. You gotta get out of bed”

The chef grumbled and pushed his head farther into his pillow. Mornings had never been his favorite thing, but now getting out of bed meant facing reality and falling back into a routine without his favorite blonde. 

Calum sighed and pulled the covers back, revealing Michael in his comfiest pair of black boxers and the sweatshirt Luke had left for him. The older boy whined and tried to grab the sheets back but Calum wasn’t having it. He pulled Michael out of bed and pushed him towards the bathroom. 

“Go shower and be downstairs in 15.” He said sharply. Calum had to run the store alone the past two days while Michael had moped about in his room and he wasn’t having it anymore. When the younger boy had come to work two mornings ago he had found Michael curled up on the floor. Michael had told him through sniffles what had happened and what he had done and needless to say, Calum was pissed. But he knew it had not been the time to call out his best friend on his stupidity and he opted to hold him until he had fallen asleep. Flash-forward two days and Calum was tired and sore and he needed his best friend to put what happened with Luke behind him and start working again. 

He was cracking eggs for the brunch rush when Michael finally came downstairs with wet hair and tired eyes. The chef pulled his white coat and Calum rolled his eyes when he saw him buttoning it up over a familiar sweatshirt, but he counted getting Michael to come to the kitchen as a victory and didn’t say anything. 

Michael put on his favorite record and started humming along while he chopped up the peppers for his famous western omelet. When the other workers came in around nine Michael had gotten back into his cooking groove, and as usual tuned everyone around him out. And that was how the day went: waiters hanging up the order slips and Michael and Calum silently preparing the different dishes. 

Calum knew that their productive day had to be too good to be true, and by the mid-afternoon he had been proven right. Business was slowing between the lunch and dinner rush, and Michael had perked up a bit, now singing along to the record player and even joking a little with the other cooks. But all that fell apart when one of the waiters called into the kitchen, “chocolate waffles with a side of hashbrowns and ham!” 

With that Michael froze; whenever the chef had managed to persuade Luke into letting him make him a meal it was always the same: chocolate waffles with a side of hashbrowns and ham. Calum immediately put down the mug of coffee he had and placed a comforting hand on Michael’s shoulder, well aware that that was Luke’s order. The older boy shook his head and rushed out of the kitchen thinking that the blonde would be sitting in the back corner by the air conditioner with a small stack of newspapers waiting for Michael to come out with his waffles and spend the evening talking about whatever came to mind. But when his eyes scanned across the room, he didn’t see the familiar blonde and was once again reminded of his mistakes. 

Calum quickly pulled Michael back into the kitchen and up the stairs to his apartment before he could completely break down. As soon as Michael was back in his bedroom he grabbed the first thing he could (fortunately a pillow) and threw it across the room. It hit his dresser and knocked over some of his childhood momentums and picture frames. Calum grabbed him and pulled him close so he couldn’t do anymore damage. He would feel his shirt become wet from tears and walked the two of them over to his bed. 

The older boy was still crying quietly when Calum had tucked him in. He pulled away to go and tell the other workers that the two of them needed to take the rest of the day off and that they were in charge for the rest of the evening. He was at the door when he heard a broken and desperate voice behind him. 

“Cal, please! Please don’t leave, please. I… I please Calum” he pleaded and Calum’s eyes widened. He hadn’t seen Michael this bad since his Uncle had died. The younger boy shook his head at his best friend. 

“I’m not leaving Mike, I promise. I’ll be right back I swear.”

Calum quickly went downstairs to tell the worried cooks and waiters what had happened before rushing back upstairs. He took off his shoes and white shirt and snuck into the bed next to Michael. Michael instantly latched onto him. 

“It was his order,” he whispered. “It was his order and he wasn’t there.”

“I know, I know.” Calum soothed while rubbing small circles on his back. 

“I don’t know where he is, or if he’s okay,” Michael continued. “What if he’s lost Cal? Or hurt!”

“Shh Mike, just sleep right now. Everything’s going to be alright.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Michael woke up the next morning alone with a small note on his bedside table telling him to come to the kitchen when he wakes up. It was only 7:30 and the restaurant didn’t open that day until 12:00 and his employees wouldn’t clock in until 11:00 so he and Calum had the whole morning to relax. He took his time in the shower before he put on his work outfit and went downstairs. The kitchen was empty and there was an empty mug next to the half-filled coffee pot which Michael took advantage of. He fixed up his coffee and looked out into the restaurant for his best friend. 

Calum was sitting in one of the booths with a cup of coffee in front of him. His black hair was messy and his round frame glasses were perched high on his nose as he buried himself in paperwork. He looked up when he saw Michael coming towards him holding the mug he had left out for him and the remaining pot of coffee. The older boy slid into the booth and refilled Calum’s mug. Calum nodded his thanks before diving right back into the various pages in front of him. 

“Everything okay?” Michael asked.

“Yeah, just have to put in the order from the butcher downtown, how much beef do we usually order again?” 

“200 pounds,” he answered and Calum nodded and wrote it down before the two fell back into silence. 

“I’m really sorry,” Michael eventually said. “It’s not fair that I’ve left all of the restaurant responsibilities to you these last few days.”

“Michael it’s okay, I know it’s been hard-” Calum started but Michael interrupted. “No, it’s not okay, I got myself into this situation and I shouldn’t have just shut down on you.” 

Calum took the glasses off of his nose and rubbed at his eyes. He offered Michael a soft smile. “You’re my best friend and I know you’re not 100% okay right now, and that’s okay. You and Luke had something special and I’m not going to say that you didn’t mess up, because you did, but I promised you that you’re going to be okay. I don’t care if you have a breakdown everyday and we have to close the restaurant sometimes. You’re more important. I promised you it’s going to be okay.”

Michael nodded and let out a shaky breath. “Thank you Cal, I honestly don’t know what I would do without you. I’m so glad you took pity on my sorry ass that first day of school.” 

Calum chuckled, “You didn’t even know how to add five and three! Admit it, I was a good teacher.”

“Fine. You were a good teacher” As soon as he said it he realized that maybe he wasn’t the only one who missed Luke. “Fuck Cal, I totally messed up your reading lessons with Luke!”

The younger boy’s smile fell and he shrugged. “It’s okay, we’re gonna find him Mike. And then he’ll learn to read something other than books about rabbits and polio. Anyway, enough about Luke. We’re scheduled for another restaurant tasting next week. I know you hate them, but I’ll be there so it can’t be that bad. It’s a pretty big event, there’s gonna be other upcoming chefs there and apparently it’s a suit and tie kinda thing.” 

Michael groaned. “Seriously? Where is it?”

“Some place in Stockton, it’s called Carl’s”


	13. Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Luke was a great addition to the Irwin family, but there was one thing Ashton wished he could change about the blonde. Ashton was starting to think it was impossible for Luke to sleep through the night without waking up from another Michael-related nightmare. Most of the time, Ashton could sleep through Luke’s heavy breathing and thrashing around, but that was not the case when the blonde decided to take residence in Ashton’s bed. 

It happened so often that Ashton considered it a regular morning when he woke up with 140lbs of boy on top of him and yet another tear stained t-shirt. Once he had managed to untangle himself from the blonde’s tight grasp, he wandered into Harry and Lauren’s room to deliver the first wake-up call. Harry was usually up before anyone else in the house reading under a soft light to not waken his sister; once he had finally been taught how to read, he couldn’t stop. He’d read anything he could get his hands on, and Ashton couldn’t be prouder. Lauren, on the other hand, had to be practically dragged out of bed most mornings. Ashton had always known she was tough to wake up, but once she had been given an actual bed it was nearly impossible. 

Aunt Mel was already downstairs when Ashton walked into the kitchen. She was quietly listening to the radio and stirring eggs for breakfast. Ashton kissed her cheek and reached to grab a mug from the cupboard for his coffee before he started preparing the kids’ lunches. 

“I like having Luke around” she said, startling Ashton who put down the jelly jar and turned to her. 

“Yeah? He’s a good kid” Ashton agreed and Mel nodded in agreement. 

“What happened to his parents? Anyone with common sense would want to keep that boy around, no?”

Ashton tensed up a bit, he knew Mel wouldn’t judge Luke or kick him out, but he was wary of whether or not this was his story to tell. Figuring that his aunt deserved to know why the boy staying in her house was homeless, he fessed up. 

“His, uh, his parents kicked him out when he came out to them,” Mel’s eyes filled with pity as Ashton continued. “He was sixteen Mel, and they told him to get his stuff and never come back. How could someone do that to him, or anyone! And he finally found a friend when I left San Francisco, but he stabbed him in the back. He’s too young to be going through so much shit like this, it’s just not fair!”

Mel noticed Ashton’s eyes tearing up and put down her mug to pull him into her arms. The two stood like that for a while, caught up in their embrace.

“Thank you for finding us, for taking us in,” He finally breathed out. “You’ll never know how much it means to me - to us”

Mel ran her hands through Ashton’s curls. “You’re family, I’d do anything for family. I’m so proud of you Ash. You stopped at nothing to take care of Harry and Lauren, you don’t give yourself nearly enough credit”

The two stayed like that for another minute, until Ashton pulled out of the hug and wiped his eyes with a laugh. 

“C’mon Harry will be down here any minute, and you still have to make lunches.”

The rest of the morning went fairly smooth, Luke came downstairs right when Harry and Lauren were leaving and walked them to school while Ashton left around lunchtime to go to his job. He had gone from selling apples at the corner to checking people out at the farmer’s market down the road. He loved the social component of the job, everyone who came in was immediately engaged in a conversation with Ashton (especially the pretty brunette who came in once a week to pick up groceries for her family). Not only did it make the long shift go by faster, but also let him meet more people and hear more stories. 

Luke, on the other hand, was constantly trying to get through a day of work without any confrontation from upset customers. It wasn’t his fault that his legs were so long that he tripped over them sometimes. It had been a week into his new job at  **Carl’s** and he had only managed to spill two water glasses, so he counted that as a victory. His boss was nice to him and the chefs sometime even let him take home some of the extra food. Luke loved his job, and he loved staying with the Irwins, but there was something missing: Michael. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael had been groaning ever since Calum had turned on his light at 6:00 am. Calum just rolled his eyes when his best friend slowly made his way to the car in his grey sweatpants and black sweatshirt, a cup of coffee in one hand and his suit in the other. Michael took his time putting his coffee in the cup and hanging his suit in the back seat. He got into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. Calum stifled a laugh at him, Michael really was something else. 

Another thing Michael was whining about (besides waking up at 6, having to go to a restaurant tasting, and forgetting his pillow for the car) was that Calum had designated him to direct the younger boy on where he was driving. When it came to navigation, Michael struggled, to say the least. The two got lost at least three times before Calum was forced to pull over and switch places with Michael so he could direct him. The drive should have taken close to two and a half hours, but in the end it ended up being around four. 

When they arrived in Stockton, Michael immediately checked into the hotel and went right back to bed, while Calum decided to explore bits of the town. He walked around and looked inside all of the restaurants and shops until he found a park and opted to rest his legs and lean against the big tree in the center of it, but he could only stay there so long. He knew he had to get back to the hotel and shower for the tasting that night, but it was also getting colder. As he was walking back, Calum thought of Luke, and where he could be, something that bothered him often. He just wanted Luke to come home to him and Michael. 

Calum had always known that one of Michael’s best talents was hiding his emotions, even though it was never easy for him. Michael never wanted to worry anybody or let his guard down, so it came as no surprise to him when Michael quickly changed from his depressed mood back into his upbeat and quirky one. He knew better than to approach him though, because the last thing he needed was Michael to get defensive. 

When he opened his and Michael’s shared hotel room, the shower was running. He silently thanked god that he didn’t have to wake Michael a second time in one day because once a day alone is exhausting enough. Once he heard the water turning off, he stripped down to his boxers and unwrapped his suit to hang it up. It was already 4:50, and they had to be at the restaurant no later than six. 

Michael walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and jumped at Calum’s presence. 

“Jeez, warn a guy Cal. You almost gave me a heart attack” Michael said, clutching his heart as if he was trying to prove it. 

Calum chuckled, “Sorry Mike, didn’t mean to startle you. Good nap?”

“Yeah, had a weird dream about Luke though” he said as he started pulling up his suit trousers. 

_ Uh oh,  _ Calum thought. “What about?” He asked. 

“It was more like a memory, I don’t know. I don’t think I want to talk about it”

Calum nodded and grabbed a towel before departing into the fogged up bathroom. He quickly showered and threw the towel on his waist before going to get his suit. Michael was silently sitting on the armchair overlooking the big window their room had. It was opened a little to let in some fresh air, but the chef kept tugging on his tie. 

“You good?” Calum asked as he dried off his hair. Michael didn’t turn around. 

“Not really,” he started. “I miss him a lot”. Calum sighed and buttoned up his trousers. He pulled on a white undershirt and went to go sit next to his best friend. “Don’t worry, I’ll snap out of it for this dinner thing, but I think I just want to be alone tomorrow”

Calum nodded and rubbed small circles on Michael’s back. “I shouldn’t have said we could come, it was stupid. I just thought maybe it would take him off you mind, but I obviously messed up. I can just go tonight if you want to stay here - I’ll just say you’re sick.”

Michael shook his head. “You didn’t get me in a suit for nothing, Hood. I’m coming tonight. Now finish getting ready, I know how much you hate being late”

Much to Calum’s enjoyment, the two arrived at 5:59 to a table full of restaurant owners and chefs from around California. He would never admit it, but Michael had fun talking to each of them about their different stories and menus, both giving and gaining inspiration. Calum looked on at his best friend, it seemed that Michael was actually enjoying the tasting and he only hope it would stay that way. They had all had a glass of wine or two and were starting to talk and laugh louder when their food arrived; the rest of the table had already been served except for Michael, Calum and another chef from just outside of Oakland. 

Michael turned around to see what was taking so long when his eyes met the one’s that had been haunting him ever since they had left his apartment full of tears; Luke quickly placed the tuna sandwich in front of Calum without even noticing him, but when he look up his jaw dropped as did the tray of food. 

The noise of the shattering glass broke Luke out of eye contact with his former friend. He looked from Michael to the broken plates on the ground back to Michael. It felt as though the restaurant walls were closing in on him and his heart was pounding. When Michael pushed his chair back and reached a hand out towards Luke, the blonde shook his head and took off. Ignoring the confused calls from his boss, he ran outside the front doors and made a beeline for the park across the street. When he finally stopped running, he found himself in front of the large oak tree which he had sat under when he first saw Harry. The sun was just going down as Luke sat to lean against the tree and buried his hands in his head.

_ Michael was there. Michael was there and I made a complete fool of myself  _ he thought to himself. He pulled at his hair and let the tears flow freely, angry that Michael still had such an effect on him, angry that Michael had found him at all. The blonde was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t hear the footsteps come up behind him. But Luke’s head shot up when he heard a small whimper behind him, following by the voice that had been able to melt him in seconds not even two weeks ago, 

“Luke?”   



	14. Fourteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Luke didn’t want to turn around, he knew he couldn’t without completely losing it. He hoped that if he was quiet enough Michael would just give up and walk away, but even he knew that wish was useless. Instead of focusing on the boy behind him who had broken his heart, he narrowed his eyes on the setting sun, trying his best to keep his composure. 

The sun was setting, and Luke couldn’t help but find the metaphor in that, the setting sun taking what peace he had in his life with it . Luke heard the crinkling of leaves and looked over to see Michael sitting down next to him. The two were quiet; Michael not knowing what to say, and Luke knowing he didn’t owe the boy anything. After a few silent minutes, Michael weakly cleared his throat. 

“You know, ever since you left I’ve been thinking of what I would say once I found you, but now that you’re here, I’m kinda at a loss” he chuckled sadly. He reached his hands out towards Luke’s but the blonde boy flinched. Michael immediately drew his hand back, but even Luke couldn’t miss the hurt look on his face.

“Guess I deserved that,” Michael said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “I’m sorry” 

“Sorry for what” Luke asked harshly. “Sorry for kissing me back? Sorry for pushing me out of your apartment? Or sorry for calling me a faggot?” 

“All of-” Michael started. 

“All of it?” Luke interrupted. 

“Yes. No, wait. Fuck, Luke just let me explain everything please.” Even in the fading light he could still see Luke’s glare at him, but the blonde nodded nonetheless. 

“Okay, so, the first day we met I knew you were special. You were just too nice and shy for me not to notice you. And I told you that day that if you cleaned up a bit you could sell in front of the restaurant. Do you remember that?” Luke’s eyes softened a bit. “And you remember how the next day it had rained but you were there apologizing because they were wet? That was when I knew I was completely fucked. I didn’t really know what was going on with me, but I was upset that Calum was teaching you to read instead of me, and I was jealous that Ashton got to spend so much time with you.” 

Michael stopped talking when he noticed Luke was shivering. He took off his suit coat and offered it to the younger boy who was only wearing his black button up. Luke took it hesitantly and thanked Michael with a soft smile. 

“Anyway, I guess Calum noticed the way I was looking at you and he confronted me. He thought it was cute, but I was terrified. It got me thinking about the restaurant and my reputation and I just denied it. That’s why I ignored you for a bit, not because you did anything wrong, but because I was scared” 

Luke scooted closer to Michael and slowly grabbed his hand and Michael almost combusted at the feeling of Luke’s hand in his. “It’s okay to be scared Michael, you could have just told me”

The chef tightly clutched onto Luke’s hand, as if the blonde would even consider letting go. “I know, I know. I should’ve. But I kind of got over it though when you passed out, your health was more important than anything at that point and I just wanted you to be okay. I forgot about trying to avoid you and getting rid of the feelings I had for you. But when you kissed me it all came back to me and I was so scared. I’ve spent years building up the restaurant and I didn’t want anything to ruin that, but as soon as I pushed you away I knew I had messed up.” 

He turned and grabbed Luke’s other hand, looking directly into his blue eyes, “You’re so much more important that the restaurant. You’re more important than anything and I would give it all up just to have another chance with you”

Luke’s eyes widened at the confession, and he couldn’t even think straight,  _ Michael liked him? _ . Here he was thinking the chef would apologize for what he did and that would be it, he didn’t think Michael would drop a bomb like this on him. He was so caught up in his head that didn’t realize how much time was passing. 

Michael sighed and squeezed Luke’s hand before going to stand up. “I get it, I know I don’t deserve a second chance. You’re always going to be it for me Lu, but I hope you find someone who can treat you the way you should’ve been treated from the start” 

Once the blonde came to his senses he grabbed Michael’s hand to pull him back down. Michael landed right in front of Luke with a soft “Oomph” but Luke couldn’t careless about the chef’s injuries at the moment. 

“Are you serious?” he asked, frantically searching Michael’s eyes to see if the chef was joking with him.

“What? Yes Luke, I’m completely serious.” The blonde still wasn’t convinced. He refused to let himself get hurt again so easily.

“Prove it to me,” Luke asked desperately, practically begging. “I need to know you’re serious”

Michael nodded. “Can I kiss you?” he asked softly, leaning it and resting his forehead on the blonde’s. 

“Yes.” Luke breathed out. 

The older boy took his shaky hand and placed in on the blonde’s cheek and checked Luke’s face once more for any doubt. When all he found was blue eyes looked back at him determined, he closed the distance between them. Kissing Luke again felt amazing; it wasn’t rushed or heavy, instead it was slow and sweet, like everything between them was okay. For the first time in two weeks, Michael felt relaxed - and he felt happy. He smiled against Luke’s soft lips and unraveled his other hand from Luke’s to wrap it around the younger boy’s back. Michael suddenly pulled the blonde closer and Luke let out a yelp of surprise, moving his own hands to wrap around the older boy’s neck. 

The two eventually broke apart and Michael rested his head back on Luke’s forehead, looking into the blonde’s eyes. Luke blushed and tried to look away but Michael pulled him right back into his chest. 

Luke started giggling and rested his head on Michael’s shoulder. “You like me” he mumbled. 

“I really like you” Michael corrected, running his hands through Luke’s hair. 

“I really like you too” he giggled. 

“Wanna prove it?” Michael joked suggestively, and that was all Luke needed to reattach his lips to the older boy’s.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun had fully set and it was getting colder every minute, but Michael refused to loosen his grip on the blonde. He never imagined that he would be able to see Luke again, let alone have him back in his arms after what he had done. After a while Luke’s breathing evened out and Michael was left with the thoughts of their future; he knew that they couldn’t stay like this forever, but he  planned to for as long as possible. 

The two had shifted so that Michael was leaning against the oak tree with Luke in his lap. The older boy was softly running his hands through the sleeping blonde’s hair when he first heard his name.

“Michael?” Calum’s familiar voice called out.

Michael nudged Luke’s shoulder and moved to call back to the Calum. 

     “Over here Cal!” 

Luke sleepily groaned and dug his face back into Michael’s shoulder with a mumbling “Shut up”. The older boy chuckled and unraveled his arms from the younger boy’s waist. 

“C’mon Lu, you gotta get up. Cal’s here.”

Luke perked up at that, but fell back into Michael’s lap when he got up too fast and felt dizzy.

“Oh my god! Luke!” The blonde quickly stood up again and rushed into Calum’s open arms. “Ashton and I have been looking everywhere for you. I can’t believe you’re really here!”

Michael stood up and walked over to the two. “I’m all good too Cal, don’t worry about me.” he joked. 

Calum pulled back from Luke and whacked Michael in the shoulder. “You’re the idiot that got him into this mess in the first place. Are you too all good now?” He asked hopefully.

Luke looked at Michael to see him already smiling at him, which only widened his own grin. He took one of Michael’s hands and didn’t break their eye contact to tell Calum, “Yeah, we’re all good.”

Calum looked between them amused before wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at his best friend. Michael rolled his eyes and used his free hand to punch Calum’s shoulder. 

“C’mon Luke, let’s get you back to Ashton. Last time I saw him he was pacing in his front yard.” 

The three walked back through the park, the streetlights lighting their way. The chef and his best friend were joking the entire way back, but Luke was caught up in his thoughts about his future with Michael. What was going to happen with the two of them? Could they actually be in a relationship?

Luke was so caught up he barely even noticed Ashton running up to him. 

“Luke! Thank god you’re okay, Calum and I were looking everywhere for you.” he said quickly before turning to Michael. “What the hell are you doing here?” he sneered. 

The blonde quickly stepped in front of the chef and shook his head frantically at Ashton. “It’s okay. We’re okay.” But Ashton’s eyes narrowed in anyway.

“You do remember what he did to you right? You do remember that he’s the reason you had to leave San Francisco. For godsake Luke, he’s the one that’s making you cry every night!” 

 

Michael flinched at that, unaware of how much he had actually hurt the boy. He looked at Calum for help, but the boy was standing next to Ashton like he was ready to hold him back if something happened. 

“I know what he did to me Ash, but he explained to me why he did what he did and apologized.”

“So now what? You’re gonna leave and go back with him? What if something like this happens again? What would you do?” 

“I-I don’t know.” he stammered out. 

Ashton scoffed and Calum took a step forward and spoke up. “Look, it’s been a long day for everyone. Luke, why don’t you just stay with Ashton and Michael and I will go back to our hotel. We have to leave tomorrow morning anyway.” 

Luke turned around and looked at Michael confused. “You’re only here until tomorrow?”

“Well, yeah.” Michael said awkwardly. “Cal and I are just here for a tasting.” 

Luke looked at the ground and Michael grabbed his hand. “Let’s talk somewhere more private okay?”

The two walked to the back of the house and sat on the bench, Michael pulling Luke down to sit into his lap.

“Come back with me and Cal.” he said bluntly

“What? Michael I can’t just-”

“No, think about it. You can come and live with me and work in the restaurant with us. And Calum could keep teaching you how to read! It’d be perfect!”

“Michael, I don’t know. Ashton had a point. What if something happens between us? Where would I go? Also, I would have to leave Ashton again.”

Michael was quiet for a moment. “I’ll come here! I could buy a house and maybe find some work in another restaurant-”

“Are you serious?” Luke interrupted. “I’m not letting you give up  **WonderBar** for me. It’s not fair for you or Calum.” 

“I’m not letting you go again Luke. I learned my lesson the first time, it’s not happening.” 

“I don’t know if I’m ready to go back to you so quickly. You really hurt me.” he whispered, looking down at his lap. 

Michael nodded. “So what’s gonna happen with us? This can’t be it Luke.” 

Luke shrugged, tears filling his eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t want to risk getting hurt again, but I know I can’t function without you”

“Y’know, Stockton isn’t too far from San Francisco. I’m just saying that if you came back home Cal or I could drive you up here for weekends with Ashton if you wanted.” Michael offered nervously

_ Home.  _ Luke thought. San Francisco was his home; Michael was his home. And here Michael was offering him not only a home, but also a future. Michael was worth the whole world, and Luke wouldn’t let him slip away. He looked up into his favorite pair of green eyes and smiled at a nervous Michael looking down at him awaiting his answer.

  
“Yeah, I’ll come home with you Mike” 


	15. Fifteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Michael looked out the window of his car at the seemingly endless rows of corn. The wind was running through his hair and he had one arm around a sleeping Luke. After their mapping disaster on the way to Stockton, Calum had refused to let Michael drive, but the older boy didn’t have anything to complain about when he realized he got to hold his favorite boy; even if owning up to his terrible navigation skills meant he’d lose some of his dignity.

He looked down at the blonde in his arms and smiled, still in disbelief that Luke had not only forgiven him, but was actually coming back to San Francisco with him. It was going to be hard, Michael knew that, but he also knew that whatever happens couldn’t possibly be harder than the time he spent away from Luke. Their conversation in Ashton’s backyard was in no way finished, and Michael guessed that there would be a lot more apologies before it would be. But for now, he planned on never letting Luke go again. 

Michael was just starting to doze off himself when Calum ran over a bump and jostled both him and Luke awake. Luke let out a soft yawn and looked up at Michael with a sleepy smile.

“Hi there” Michael smiled back, offering his free hand out to Luke to take. 

He took it without hesitation and snuggled closer towards Michael. The older boy looked into the front seat, where Calum was softly humming along to something on the car’s radio, obviously distracted in his own world. 

“We need to talk Lu,” Michael started, “Get everything all worked out”

Luke looked up in confusion, “I thought we did that already?”

“I know we did, but there is still some things we need to figure out. Like where you’re gonna live, and what you’re gonna do in the restaurant”

“I thought you wanted me to live with you?” Luke questioned, hurt filling his voice. 

“Of course I do! But I need to know that that is what you want. I don’t want to force you into my home or anything. You know what, maybe Calum could-” 

Luke frantically shook his head, “Michael,” he interrupted, “I want to live with you and you know that. What is this really about?” 

The older boy was quiet for a moment, “I don’t want you to regret any of this,” he said softly. “I still can’t believe you’re even with me right now after what I did to you”

Luke nodded in understanding, “We both messed up Mike, you said some pretty awful things to me, but I shouldn’t have just immediately left.”

“You had every right to leave though”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I should’ve,” he stated. “I wasn’t even thinking about how scared or confused you felt and I’m sorry.”

“I was terrified- I am terrified,” Michael said softly. “But we’ll be okay.”

The blonde playfully punched Michael’s shoulder. “We’ll be more than okay, we’ll be great.”

“Yeah Lu, we’ll be great” he smiled back. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael had barely unlocked the front door of the restaurant before Luke dashed inside. He had been complaining the whole last hour in the car that he was “dying from thirst” but even Calum didn’t take pity on him and told him to suck it up. The chef chuckled at the blonde rushing into the kitchen and he lugged both of their bags to the bottom of the staircase of his apartment, shrugging the luggage off his shoulder to be dealt with later. 

When he walked back into the kitchen Luke was sitting on the counter with a glass of water in his hand and a familiar look in his eye. Michael picked up on it quickly and immediately shook his head. 

“Dude, no way” he deadpanned, walking over to start the coffee pot. “We just got back I’m way too tired for that.”

“Please Mike!” Luke pouted, “You know, you still owe me”

Michael groaned, “You’re literally insane Hemmings I hope you know that”. Luke just smirks at him and grabs his water. He walks over to the older boy who was rummaging through the fridge. When he stood up with a carton of milk in one hand and eggs in the other, Luke gave him a kiss on the cheek and enjoyed watching the blush fill the older boy’s cheeks. 

“I’ll be in the booth” he says, leaving Michael alone in the kitchen. 

It isn’t long until Michael comes out trying to balance a plate, a cup of tea for Luke, and his coffee. He grumbles as some of his coffee spills over onto the hardwood floors, but he eventually makes it to their booth in the back corner. 

“There you go you giant freak, chocolate waffles for lunch.” Michael said amused as he placed the plate and mug in front of Luke. 

“Thank you Mikey” he responds with the widest smile that made up for all of the dirty dishes waiting in the sink for him to wash later. 

Michael stood there for a moment and just looked down at Luke, caught in the afternoon sun and basking in the purest joy that he’d felt in weeks. 

“Why are you just standing there” Luke giggled, his mouth full of his favorite meal”

“Sorry” Michael replies as he takes a seat in the booth “Just happy. I guess it’s finally just sinking in. I’m really glad you came back”

Luke scrapes up the remaining crumbs and syrup with the edge of his fork and grins at Michael. “I’m really glad I came back too. Even if I am just totally using you for your waffles.”

Michael gasped dramatically and put a hand to his chest, only prompting Luke to burst out laughing. 

“Kidding!” The blonde eventually breathed out through the giggles.

“I sure hope so” Michael muttered back, looking at Luke with a fake glare. 

By the time he was done eating, Luke’s face was a mess of syrup and chocolate and it practically melted Michael’s heart when the blonde lightly pushed the plate away and smiled up at him. Michael chuckled and licked his thumb before using it to wipe up the chocolate around his mouth. 

“There you go babe” he said when he was done, smirking at Luke’s red face. He loved the effect that he had on him. 

“C’mon Lu,” Michael said, grabbing the plate and mugs in front of him and scooting his way out of the booth, “Can we uh, maybe go nap?”

Luke immediately nodded his head, and Michael felt yet another wave of blissful happiness. He was so sure that this was all some kind of dream and he would wake up in his bed alone again with the same feelings of guilt and despair he had the morning Luke left. He placed the dishes on the growing pile on the sink and went to unlock the door to his apartment. He took both his and Luke’s luggage and carefully maneuvered it up the steep stairs. 

Luke came bounding up the stairs shortly after and nervously looked down at his luggage. Michael noticed, (of course he noticed, he was always paying attention to Luke) and gave him a questioned look. 

“Where do you want me to put these?” he asked, scratching the back of his head. 

“Our bedroom?” Michael asked and Luke nodded happily and reached down to grab his stuff, but Michael pushed his hands away and took the small bags himself into their room. 

Luke trailed behind him and while Michael was putting his clothes away in the drawers, he lay on top of the bed and sighed. 

“Don’t you wanna change?” Michael asked. He had already unbuttoned his shirt and thrown on his grey hoodie. 

Luke looked down at what he was wearing, a black button up, streaked with dirt, and white pants that were much too big for him. He did want to change, but he didn’t exactly have anything to change into. The bags he had packed were full of the mementos that he had collected and a few coins. God, he was such an idiot. How could Michael even look at him? 

“I, uh- I don’t have anything to change into” he stuttered, almost scared to see Michael’s reaction. Little did he know that the older boy was mentally beating himself up for not offering him any clothes earlier. 

Michael quickly grabbed an old t-shirt and the smallest sweatpants he had and walked over to the bed. He softly grabbed Luke’s shoulders and handed him the clothes. “Here Lu, they might be a bit too big, but I’m sure it’ll be more comfortable than what you’ve got on.” Luke wrapped his arms around Michael and pulled him into a tight hug. 

“You’re too good to me.” he sighed into Michael’s neck, but the older boy only rubbed his back and kissed his cheek. 

“Go get changed love, then we’ll talk, okay?” 

Luke emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later looking happier than ever with the end of the sweatpants trailing behind him on the hardwood floor. Michael smiled widely at him and opened his arms and the sheets to invite him in. It didn’t take Luke too long to get comfortable in the familiar bed, especially with Michael’s warm arms wrapped around him. 

“We're gonna go shopping tomorrow.” Michael said sleepily into Luke’s neck. The blonde shivered, moving closer to Michael, “Oh, what do you need?”

“Nothing for me love, it's all gonna be for you. Gonna get you some new clothes and things. Whatever you want.” 

Luke was too tired to argue Michael over something like this was useless, so he snuggled in closer to the boy and muttered a soft “Thank you” before letting sleep overtake him.

When Michael’s alarm clock went off the next morning, he groaned and slammed down on it. He had left Calum in charge too many times and knew that it was time for him to get back in the kitchen. When he pulled away from Luke, the blonde only whined and tightened his grip on him. 

“Luke, babe I gotta get downstairs.” 

“No,” Luke grumbled back. “You're not leaving, just got you back. 

Michael fully sat up and ran his hands through Luke’s morning hair. “Trust me, I’d rather stay up here too. I'll be back before you know it.” He promised. 

He got dressed lazily, messing up the buttons on his shirt twice before finally getting it right. Luke had already gone back to sleep by the time Michael was ready so the older boy simply kissed the boy’s forehead and headed down to the restaurant. 

Michael furrowing his eyebrows when he heard Calum talking to someone in the kitchen. It had always just been him and Cal alone preparing this early so why would anyone else be there? He was even more confused when he saw that it was Jessica, one of his favorite waitresses. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked, startling the two. 

Calum looked up, “What are  _ you _ doing here? I thought you were going to sleep in today with Luke?”

“But we have to prepare and we're always here early?” 

“Go back to bed Mike” Calum said grinning, “Jess and I've got this, just be down 15 minutes before opening.” 

Michael didn't think that now was really the time to bring up Calum’s newfound crush on the green-eyed waitress but he made a mental reminder to tease the shit out of him later before giving him a silent thank you and practically running back up to Luke. 

Luke had shifted in the few minutes that Michael had gone so that now he was lying face first on the bed with his long skinny limbs spread out to each corner. Michael elicited a startled shriek from the blonde when he pulled back the sheets, letting the cold air hit across Luke’s back. He quickly shuffled his way back into the warm bed, pulling Luke on top of him in the process.

“Mike?” Luke asked sleepily.

“Go back to sleep love, I'll wake you again in a few hours.” 

The second time Michael got out of bed, Luke didn't even stir. He straightened out his shirt and re-tied his shoes before going back downstairs He didn’t bother leaving Luke a note-the blonde knew where to find him. The kitchen was bustling with excitement just before the day’s opening: younger cooks were frantically peeling potatoes and cracking eggs, waiters and waitresses double checking their pens to make sure they worked, and Calum calling out orders from the stove. 

Michael smiled; he hated himself for practically abandoning the restaurant the last couple of weeks, but he loved knowing that Calum and his employees were able to hold down the fort, and the kitchen would always be where he felt most at home. He grabbed his chef coat from the coat rack and joined his best friend at the stove. 

“Hey! There you are. How’s Luke?” Calum asked, flipping the bacon over. 

“Out like a rock,” Michael responded. “Everything all good down here?” 

“As if I’d ever let something bad happen to this place.” he responded, to which Michael laughing and took his own spatula. 

The morning went well: Michael got right back into his cooking mindset and zones out everything else. He scrambled more eggs and poured more mimosas than he could ever count, all while joking along with Calum and the other cooks between busy shifts. Everyone in the kitchen could tell that he was much happier, and they were pleased to see their boss back and happy. 

It was mid-afternoon when the last customers were paying the check when Luke finally came downstairs with the bottom of Michael’s sweatpants dragging across the ground and a wide smile on his face. The rest of the cooks had cleared out and Jessica was clocking out after registering the last bill into the system. She waved a goodbye to Michael and Calum and went out the back door the second Luke walked into the kitchen. 

Michael’s tired eyes lit up when he saw the blonde and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Let me clean up a bit with Cal then I’ll make you some lunch, ok?” Luke nodded and took his seat at the bar looking into the kitchen. Someone had left a newspaper on the bar and Luke took it and immediately flipped over to the comics page, deciphering the jokes as best he could with his still limited reading skills. Calum looked over at him and saw his eyes squinting at the paper in frustration. He hadn’t talked to Luke yet about continuing their reading sessions now that he was back, for he figured that the two of them needed time to adjust to their new lives together. He made a mental note to bring it up later as Michael handed him another wet dish to dry. 

Calum left a half-hour after closing when all the dishes were dried and put away, leaving just Michael and Luke. 

“Anything special you want Luke?” Michael asked. “Remember, we’re going out after lunch to get you some clothes.” The blonde looked up from the paper and shook his head. 

“Surprise me.” He smiled. 

When Michael came out of the kitchen he was carrying two plates with a grilled cheese sandwich and a small cup of tomato soup on each. He sat down next to Luke at the bar and passed him a small spoon and napkin. 

“So where are we going today?” Luke asked, mouth full of grilled cheese. 

“Wherever you wanna go,” Michael responded. “We could go downtown if you’d like.”

Luke nodded, he’d never been downtown before. He never had the chance to when he was selling newspapers for Richard, but he had heard about it. A lot of the regular people who bought papers from in were on their way downtown to work each morning and told him about the big buildings and endless streets of shops. In those days he had never imagined that one day he would be able to shop in one of them. 

“Great, then I’ll go get out of these clothes and we can head out,” Michael said with a smile, grabbing his empty plate and putting it in the sink. 

Luke followed him back upstairs and into their bedroom. He pulled off Michael’s sweatshirt and sweatpants and changed back into his old button-up and pants. Michael grabbed his wallet and handed Luke one of his smaller coats before the two left the apartment and made their way downtown. 

It was just as amazing as Luke had imagined it: there were people everywhere bustling from restaurants back to their offices, children looking into the windows of candy and toy stores, groups of women walking together down the street with shopping bags on their arms. He almost didn’t even want to go shopping anymore and just stay where he was, watching the hustle and bustle of the city. He was broken out of his trance when Michael pulled his arm back and a car zoomed by. 

“C’mon Lu, you gotta be careful,” he started, “People here aren't paying attention to anything other than themselves.”

The blonde blushed and looked down, “Sorry” he muttered, feeling like an idiot. 

“Hey,” Michael grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry, I just don’t want you to get hurt. It’s a lot crazier here than it is in our little town. Now, let’s go and get you some clothes.”

Luke nodded and leaned in a little closer to Michael, suddenly a little overwhelmed. The older boy walked them along the streets to the different shops, looking towards Luke every once in awhile to make sure he was okay. When he finally found the store he was looking for he nudged Luke’s shoulder and led them in. 

The blonde was immediately overwhelmed by the sheer amount of clothes in front of him. He looked from his scrawny body to the clothing on the model, automatically knowing that it wouldn’t look good on him. Michael, on the other hand, was grabbing shirts and pants from almost every section and passing them along to one of the employees who was making him a fitting room. In his frantic move to grab every piece of clothing, Michael looked at a frowning Luke and furrowed his eyebrows. 

“Everything okay?” he asked, walking towards the blonde. 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Michael knew he wasn’t but didn’t want to push him, so he asked another question. 

“I picked out some clothes for you, do you want to go try them on?” 

Luke nodded and tried to smile. No,he didn’t want to go try them on, but Michael had taken him out here and was ready to pay for anything Luke wanted so there was no way he could say no to him. Michael smiled softly at Luke and walked him over to the fitting room. He motioned from him to go in, “I’ll be right out here, come show me how they look.” 

When Luke walked into the fitting room he was met with tons of shirts and pants all on the hangers and floor. He shrugged his own pants off his legs and pulled up a black pair of pants. They fit snug on his hip and when he looked down at his legs he found himself smiling. He pulled on one of the shirts Michael had picked out and buttoned it up. And for the first time in a long time, he was actually wearing clothes that fit him- not the oversized hand-me-downs from his older brothers or shabby work clothes from the restaurant in Stockton. 

“Michael?” he called, sticking his head out from the curtain. The older boy was sitting on the bench fiddling with his fingers waiting for the blonde. Upon hearing his name he looked up into Luke’s eyes. 

“Everything good?” he asked. 

“Can you come here?” Luke asked, desperate for Michael to like him in the clothes. Michael stood up and walked into the fitting room looking up and down at Luke. “So, what do you think?” 

Michael leaned in and left a soft kiss on Luke’s lips and rested his forehead on the blonde’s. He reached down and took Luke’s hands in his. “It doesn’t matter what I think Lu, as long as you like it, I love it. But, just so you know, I think you look fantastic.” 

Luke practically melted at Michael’s words and smiled up at him. “Thank you, I like them.” Michael kissed Luke’s forehead and pulled away.

“Keep trying things on and if you don’t like it just give it to me and I’ll get someone to put it back.” 

Luke nodded and closed the curtain back, grinning to himself as he took off the shirt and pants, folded them up, and placed them in the small corner of the fitting room that was not covered with clothes. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Luke trying on clothes in cramped fitting rooms and Michael showering him in compliments. By the time they were walking back to the apartment, both Luke and Michael were carrying three bags each filled to the brim of Luke’s new clothes. The blonde felt guilty everytime Michael had to swipe his credit card, but Michael constantly reassured him that he loved doing this and it was necessary for him to have clothes that fit. 

The two were giggling at some lame joke Luke told as Michael unlocked the front door. He held it open for Luke as he walked in and was surprised to see someone sitting at one of the front tables. 

“Cal? What are you doing here?” he asked. His best friend was sitting with a newspaper and empty mug of coffee in front of him. 

“Waiting for you guys to get home. Luke, I have something for you. I didn’t know when you were going to get back so I just left it on your bed.”

As Luke went to go upstairs with the bags in his hands, he heard Michael, “Luke? Leave the bags at the bottom of the stairs, I’ll take them up later.” 

He dropped them and rushed up the stairs, excited to see what Calum had left for him. It was already dark out so he had to turn on the light by the table to see what it was. When he turned it on he smiled widely at it for a few seconds before grabbing it and turning off the light. He ran back down the stairs to the table where Calum and now Michael were sat. The two heard his frantic footsteps and looked up when he entered. 

“Find it?” Calum asked amused. 

Luke held up the tattered copy of  _ The Velveteen Rabbit  _ and pulled back the chair next to Calum at the table. He sat down, “What’s this for?” he asked, although he already had a pretty good idea of what Calum would say. 

“Still want to learn how to read?” he asked and Luke was eagerly nodded his head before Calum even finished his question. 

“You don’t mind do you?” Calum asked Michael, who was looking at the pair with a grin. 

“Not at all, I have to do some paperwork anyway. Want me to bring you some tea or coffee?” he offered.

“How about a chocolate waffle?” Calum joked.

Michael fondly rolled his eyes , “You’re the worst.” he deadpanned, but grabbed Calum’s mug nonetheless. He brewed Luke’s tea and a mug of coffee for both him and Calum before bringing it to their table where he saw Luke stuttered out the words to a listening Calum. He handed them their drinks and went back to get his paperwork. He joined them back at the table and spent the rest of the evening figuring out finances and orders while Luke retold the story of the rabbit that came to life. 


	16. Sixteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

Luke watched as the fire in front of him crackled and burned the wood, his eyes fixated on the flickering red and orange hues. Of all the things in their apartment, Luke loved the fireplace the most, especially now in the middle of December when the winter winds howled outside and light snow fell frequently. There was something about the small flames that enchanted him, brought him back to the happier times of his childhood, and he could spend hours sitting on the floor looking into it. 

His fondest memories with Michael these days always seemed to involve the fireplace and hot chocolate. After a long day of work, Michael would start the fire while Luke showered, and then hop in himself once Luke came out. The blonde would throw on a pair of sweatpants and one of Michael’s shirts before sitting cross-legged in front of the fireplace. Not long after, Michael would join him and the two would reflect on their days, Michael recalling the crazy moments in the kitchen and Luke laughing about the stranger questions he got regarding  **WonderBar** ’s menu. 

Luke loved working in the restaurant. All of the waiters and chefs immediately warmed up to him when Michael introduced him to them with an arm thrown around his waist and a threatening look. Michael aside, the waiters loved listening to all of Luke’s stories of hitch-hiking to San Francisco and his life living in a shanty-town during a slow hour. And of course whenever they brought up Michael he was a blushing mess, stammering out excuses to change the subject. They continued to tease him anyway whenever Michael wasn’t looking- Calum even joined in every once in awhile, and although he would never admit it, Luke relished in their lighthearted taunting. 

Another thing Luke loved about working was that he got to practice his reading and writing every single day. Initially when he had to write down the orders he only wrote the numbers which corresponded to the meals on the menu, but with more practice with Calum and even the other waiters, he was beginning to write down the actual orders now. Sure the writing was shaky and the words were often misspelled, but there was not a bigger smile on Michael’s face when he was given an order in the boy’s handwriting. 

The restaurant had just closed and Michael and Calum were finishing the dishes and the paperwork while Luke sat in their booth with his usual mug of black tea and a newspaper in front of him. Some days were better than others when it came to his reading: he could be easily frustrated one day and give up after struggling through one article, or he could make it through the whole front page with a small accomplished smile on his face. He knew that today was going to be a bad reading day when he couldn’t even decipher one of the big words in the article’s title, but he kept going, and by the second paragraph his eyes were filled with frustrated tears. He wiped at his eyes, even more frustrated that he was crying over something so stupid. The half empty mug in front of him was getting cold, so he chugged the rest down before getting up and taking it back into the kitchen. 

Michael and Calum were awkwardly dancing along to some old jazz record, laughing at each other as they washed and dried the dishes. Luke stood in the door frame trying to silence his giggles, the two of them, especially Michael, always made him feel better, even if they didn’t know it. He placed his mug on the steel countertops and walked over to Michael who was washing a plastic cup. He wrapped both arms around his middle and elicited a shriek from the older boy. Calum and Luke burst out laughing at Michael’s reaction, but the older boy was not amused. He put down the glass and turned around to face Luke, who was almost red in the face with laughter. He used his soapy hands and pinched Luke’s sides. 

“Michael!” Luke squealed, trying to get his ticklish body away from Michael’s hands, but the older boy wouldn’t hold up. Calum shook his head at the two and washed and dried the last cup himself before grabbing his winter coat and clocking out. 

“See you tomorrow Boss,” he called out, knowing that the two wouldn’t pay him any attention now. Michael had the blonde lightly pressed up against the wall tickling his sides as Luke’s hysteric laughter filled the quiet room.

“That’s what happens when you scare me babe,” Michael chuckled, finally pulling his hands away from Luke, but the blonde didn’t want to let go and threw his arms around Michael’s neck, pulling him in closer. “You okay Lu?”

“Hmm,” he mumbled into Michael’s chest, “Missed you today”. Michael kissed the top of Luke’s head and tightened his grip, “Missed you too. C’mon let’s go upstairs.”

The blonde nodded and stepped back from Michael’s embrace. He waited by the door as Michael took off his chef jacket and turned off all of the lights before joining him. He fished the key out of his pocket and handed it to Luke who unlocked the door and practically sprinted upstairs. Michael shook his head in amusement, maybe giving Luke a cup of tea after 8 o’clock was not the best idea. 

When Michael got upstairs, Luke was sitting on the end of their bed, eyes wandering from the fireplace to Michael and back again. He let out a fake exasperated sigh and slumped his shoulders, “It’ll be ready when you get out of the shower”

Luke hopped off the bed and kissed Michael on the cheek before rushing into the shower. “Thanks Mikey!” was the last thing he said before he shut the bathroom door. Michael grabbed wood from the other room and an extra newspaper from their living room table. He crouched in front of the fireplace and arranged the wood and newspaper before lighting it up, watching the small flame from the match reach the paper and expand to the wood. 

He untied his shoes and placed them next to his side of the bed when he heard Luke in the shower belt out some Billie Holiday lyrics. Luke really was something else, but Michael wouldn’t change a single thing about their life. He still cursed himself every time he thought of what he did to the blonde not that long ago and how he almost lost him because he was an idiot. Luke always thanked Michael for what he had done to help him, but the blonde had managed to flip Michael’s whole life around for the better and he couldn’t be more grateful. So, if Luke wanted a fire, he would get a fire. When he heard the water in the bathroom shut off, he used his fire iron to prod the wood and get the fire perfect for Luke. The blonde came out a minute later, wet hair flat on his head and a warm towel wrapped around his body. 

Michael stood up and grabbed his towel from the rack outside the bathroom, looking back at Luke who was already beaming at the fire in front of him. “Thanks Mike” he said, grabbing his pajamas from under his pillow. 

“Don’t…” Michael started.

“Burn myself, I know Mike you remind me every time” he interrupted, giving Michael a dopey grin. Michael held his hands up, “Just keeping you safe”

“Go shower you goon” he said, throwing on one of Michael’s old long sleeve shirts that he had now claimed as his. When Michael closed the bathroom door, he dried off the rest of his body and pulled up his sweatpants. He lazily towel-dried his hair before hanging up the towel and taking a seat in front of the fire. He let the heat wash over him as he relaxed his muscles and closed his eyes. Michael eventually came out of the bathroom and smiled down at Luke, who was mesmerized by the small flames. He pulled on his pajamas and hung up his towel before taking a seat on the floor behind Luke. Luke squeaked and opened his eyes in surprise when he felt Michael’s arms wrap around him and pull him close into his chest. Michael chuckled and rested his head on Luke’s shoulder, occasionally pressing lingering kisses to the bare skin of his neck. 

“Mikey?” Luke asked in a soft voice. The blonde shook a bit in Michael’s arm, confusing him. He loosened his grip and Luke turned around in his arms, nudging his head under Michael’s chin and sighing. 

“What’s up Lu, you’ve been acting weird all day”

Luke shrugged and said in a muffled voice, “I don’t know what to call you”

“Um, Michael?” The older boy furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding Luke’s words. 

“No, like us,” Luke tried again

“Luke what are you going on abou-” “Are you my boyfriend?” Luke bluntly interrupted, blushing madly. 

“What?” Michael asked dumbfounded. “Yes Luke, I thought we figured that out a while ago, did you not think you were?”

“You, you never asked me,” Luke said sheepishly. Michael suddenly got an idea and sat up fully, pulling the blonde with him. He moved Luke from his lap to the floor and stood up, rushing out of the room. 

“Michael?” Luke called. “What are you doing?” 

“Don’t worry about it babe! Just give me a minute!

Luke chuckled and distracted himself again with the fire in front of him. The flames were growing smaller and smaller, but Michael didn’t want him to use the fire iron because he (reasonably) assumed the younger boy would somehow light the entire building on fire, so all Luke could do was watch it die.

Michael came back into the room a few minutes later with a black plastic bag in his hand and a wide smile on his face. “I totally forgot to give this to you! I got it when we were out shopping the first time and you were too busy changing to notice! Here, open it up.”

Luke took the bag from Michael’s outstretched arm and opened it. Inside was something relatively familiar to Luke: a small snow globe showing the San Francisco skyline. He remembered holding it and admiring it before he was practically pushed into a changing room at one of the stores in the city months ago. Clothes had been the priority that day, not little knick knacks, but Michael saw how fascinated Luke was with the small toy and snuck it into their cart full of clothes when they were checking out. He meant to give it to him that night, but with Calum offering more reading sessions and all the paperwork on his desk, he completely forgot about it. 

He smiled down at it before looking up to meet Michael’s hopeful eyes. The older boy took the gift from his hands and replaced them with his own. “I shouldn’t have just assumed things Luke, sorry about that,” he said sheepishly. “But I would be honored to be your boyfriend”.

Luke giggled and kissed Michael softly, “I’d love that”. Michael’s face lit up and he peppered light kisses all over Luke’s face, prompting more giggles to leave his  _ boyfriend’s  _ mouth. God, that sounded perfect to Michael. Luke’s eyes widened as he pulled away from Michael and rushed to the pen on his bedside table. Michael’s eyes followed him in confusion as the blonde walked over to the calendar by their bedroom door. In his shaky handwriting, Luke flipped to today’s date and scribble  _ Mike & Luke.  _ He looked back at Michael with a dopey grin, “It can be our anniversary!” Michael was so gone for the boy in front of him. 

“C’mon boyfriend, let’s go to bed,” Michael smiled. 


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

STOCKTON, CA. MAY 1931

 

“Don’t go!” Harry cried, practically strangling Luke’s right leg with his grasp. Lauren was on the left holding tight onto his hand. Ashton and Aunt Mel looked on at the three from the porch with bittersweet smiles. It was Sunday evening and Luke had just spent the weekend with the Irwin’s. As Michael promised, the weekend visits became a regular thing and Luke would spend two weekends every month in Stockton. It worked out well for Michael and Luke for the restaurant was always busiest on the weekends and Michael was able to focus completely on cooking while Luke could relax with Ashton and his family and the more experienced waiters could step in. 

Michael stepped out on the porch, wiping his wet hands on his black jeans. He smiled at his boyfriend, who had been tackled to the ground and covering with Harry and Lauren. 

“Oi! What are you doing to him?” Michael called amused. 

 Harry had both of Luke’s arms pinned to the grass when he yelled back “He can’t leave if he can’t move!” 

 The three adults on the porch and Luke laughed at that. Ashton clapped a hand to Michael’s back, “Thanks for bringing him again, you don’t know how much it means to all of us.” 

 Michael nodded, “I’d do anything to keep him smiling- besides, I think working in the restaurant is getting to be a little bit too much for him so this getaway is perfect.”

 Ashton furrowing his eyebrows, “What do you mean?”

 “It just stresses him out when it’s super busy, but him being here most weekends balances it all out. I know that he doesn’t want to work as a waiter the rest of his life, but he always changes the conversation when I bring it up. I think he thinks that he’s never going to get a good job or something ‘cause he didn’t get to go to school.”

 “Ask him about it on the way home,” Aunt Mel said. “That way he can’t avoid it or walk away.”

 “Yeah,” Michael nodded. “I’ll do that. Anyway, we should get going.” He gave both of them a hug and thanked them again before walking across the grass towards his boyfriend. 

“You ready to go Lu?” Luke laughed, “I don’t think I can even get up Mike.” 

“Harry! Lauren! Let that poor boy go. C’mon, say goodbye, you’ve both got school tomorrow and you’ll see him again soon.” Mel said. 

The two stood up and gave Luke and Michael one last hug before racing each other to the front door. Michael opened the passenger door for Luke and waved once more to the Irwin’s as he got into the driver’s seat. Luke yelled out a “See you soon!” as Michael drove off down the road. 

“How was your weekend?” Michael asked, one hand on the wheel and the other on top of Luke’s.  

“It was so good! Cal and I got here early enough Friday that I got to surprise Harry and Lauren at school. They were so excited! I helped Harry with his homework too, and Lauren read her school book to me. Ashton had to work on Saturday, but this morning Mel made a picnic and we spent the day at the park, Ashton’s girlfriend even came too!” 

 Michael chucked and ran his thumb across Luke’s hand. “Glad you had a good time babe. Missed you though.” 

 “How’s the restaurant?” 

 “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Michael started. “And I need you to be honest with me.”

 Luke looked at Michael confused, “What’s going on?” 

 “It’s nothing bad!” Michael explained, immediately sensing the tension in the car. “I’ve just noticed that work might be getting a little bit too hectic for you, and I want you to do what makes you happy- whatever that takes.”

“What are you talking about? I  _ like  _ working at the restaurant.”

 “Yeah, but I know you don’t love it and I’m sure you’d rather do something else. Who would want to be a waiter for the rest of their lives?”

 Luke pulled his hand away from Michael’s and crossed his arms. He looked out the windows and huffed. “This is stupid, why would I try to get another job when I already have a perfectly good one with you?” 

 “Because it’s not what you want to do!” Michael retorted. “Look, Luke I love having you working with me, but I want you to be spending your days doing whatever makes you happiest. I can help you get your dream job, but I don’t even know what it is that you wanna do!”

 “I don’t need you to get me a job,” Luke huffed. “I could do it myself”

 “What is it that you want to do Luke?” Michael asked exasperated. “Why won’t you tell me!”

 “Because it could never happen!” Luke yelled, turning in his seat to face away from Michael to look at the setting sun. He almost laughed at the fact that there was always a beautiful sunset when they fought, but he was too upset. Why couldn’t Michael just leave it alone? Sure, some days at the restaurant he felt like screaming, but most of the time it was fine; he was fine. 

 “Luke?” Michael said softly, turning off the radio. When he got no response he sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Can we just talk about this rationally?” 

 The blonde only turned his body farther away from Michael and curled in on himself. He didn’t want to talk to Michael anymore and thankfully, Michael took the hint. The next hour and a half of the car trip was silent, Luke had fallen asleep but Michael was trying to figure out where their fight even started. He didn’t think he had said anything wrong, he just wanted to help Luke. He sighed as he pulled into their garage, unsure of what to do with the sleeping blonde next to him. 

 Michael killed the engine and grabbed Luke’s bags from the trunk. He quickly brought them up to their room before going back to get Luke. The blonde was stretching and yawning when Michael returned. When he saw Michael, Luke stood up and lightly pushed past him with a small “thanks” and started going up the stairs to the apartment. Michael furrowed his eyebrows, but quickly locked the car and followed his boyfriend upstairs. When he made it to their room, Luke was nowhere to be seen and the light in their bathroom was on. 

 The older boy threw his keys on the hook and took off his shoes. He grabbed his pajamas from his dresser and pulled them on, tossing his dirty clothes into their hamper. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he put his head into his hands. His head started to hurt and all he wanted was to curl up in bed with Luke and go to sleep. Luke came out of the bathroom after a few minutes and Michael took his place. He washed off his face and brushed his teeth before turning off the light and heading back to bed. Luke already had the covers pulled up to his chin and was, once again, facing away from Michael’s side. 

 Michael lifted up the covers and lay down. He took a deep breath and turned over to pull Luke’s body close to his-he had found out the hard way during the weekends Luke was in Stockton that he could barely sleep without the blonde in his arms. Apparently it wasn’t the same for Luke, for when Michael put his arm over his waist, the blonde squirmed and pushed his arm off. 

 “Ok, what the fuck Luke.” Michael sat up and turned on the light on his bedside table, anger shooting through his veins. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” he started. “But I didn’t ask you anything unreasonable in the car. I simply wanted to know what your dream job is, so I could help you out. There is no reason for you to freak out at me. It’s not fair.”

 Luke didn’t even flinch at Michael’s words and ignored him. The older boy felt a pang of hurt in his chest as he nodded to himself. He turned the light off and rolled back over to his side of the bed. “Forget it. I drove four hours today to come pick you up and take you home. I haven’t seen you all weekend and you won’t even let me hold you? Fuck you Luke, you know I can’t sleep without you.” 

 It was quiet for a minute or two while Michael calmed down, but it wasn’t long until Luke’s arms were prodding at Michael’s waist trying to flip him onto his back. 

 “You got what you wanted Luke. Just leave me alone.” Michael said coldly and wrapped himself tighter in the duvet. Luke’s hands froze and he pulled them back towards him. 

 He lay on his back and looked up at the dark ceiling. “A teacher,” he said quietly. “I want to be a teacher.”

 Michael turned over to look at Luke. “Why couldn’t you have just told me that?” 

 Luke shrugged, and Michael’s eyes caught the movement in the dark anyway. “I told you, it would never happen so there’s no reason why I should get my hopes up.”

 “Why couldn’t you even be a teacher? You’re amazing with kids!”

 “I didn’t even go to school, how could I become a teacher?”

 “If your dream is to be a teacher, then we’ll figure it out together Lu. Your dreams are my dreams ok?”

 “I’m sorry for acting like a jerk. You do so much for me and you didn’t deserve that.”

 “It’s okay Luke. I shouldn’t have pushed you,” Michael opened his arms. “Come here.” Luke left a soft kiss on Michael’s cheek before settling down in his arms. 

 “For the record,” Luke mumbled, “I missed you too.” Michael snorted, “You’re a few hours late for that babe.”

 Luke slapped his chest, “Don’t be rude.”

“Go to sleep blondie.”

 \--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Making Luke a teacher became Michael’s mission, but he found early on that it wasn’t as easy as he thought. Between all of the time he spent at the restaurant and alone with Luke, it was almost impossible to find a good chunk of time to look into jobs. Luke, while he thought what Michael was doing was sweet, wanted to do this himself. He had been relying on Michael for almost everything for the last year and a half and wanted to prove that he could do something for himself. 

Luke still thought that Michael was crazy for thinking that he of all people could become a teacher, but loved watching him every Sunday rush frantically through the employment page in the newspaper nonetheless. But in the end, Luke got his way and he found himself a teaching opportunity (with a little bit of Michael’s help). 

A few weeks after their dispute, Luke started taking fewer hours at the restaurant. He didn’t like feeling the constant stress and rushed pace of the place everyday, so he opted to work only three days a week. He really took advantage of his four days off and spent them doing his favorite activities: sleeping, reading, and bothering Michael and Calum. Calum and Luke had stopped their daily reading lessons; Luke could get through most adult books now so he and Calum changed their reading lessons to a book club where Calum would give Luke a book and they’d meet each week to discuss it and pick a new book. 

It was a slow afternoon when the teaching opportunity came about; Luke was one of three waiters working and the summer air seemed to slow down time. The blonde was thinking back to last summer, when he was selling newspapers and living in the shantytown, and how far he’d come since then. He was shaken from his thoughts when the bell over the front door rang and a woman walked in. Standing up and smoothing out his work shirt, he grabbed a menu and smiled at the woman. 

“Just one?” he asked, and the woman nodded. Luke led her to a booth by the air conditioner and gave her the menu. “ I’ll be right back with water, would you like anything else to drink?” 

“No thanks, water is fine.” When Luke walked into the kitchen to get the water, Michael was smirking down at a blushing Calum. 

“You so like her Cal, don’t even try lying to me.” Michael said. 

 Calum softly shoved his shoulder but gave up the act, “So what if I do? I wouldn’t even know what to say!”

 “Just ask her out! If it means anything, I’m pretty sure she’s into you too.”

“Are you talking about Jessica?” Luke butted in, pouring water into the glass. 

“How did you know?” Calum frantically asked. “Am I  _ that  _ obvious?” Luke and Michael looked at each and laughed, only worrying Calum more. 

“You guys are so nervous around each other and you look at her all lovingly sometimes,” Luke explained, “And she looks at you too!” He passed Michael with the water glass and kissed his cheek before leaving the kitchen. He saw the woman now had three different stacks of paperwork in front of her and a red pen in her hand. When Luke placed the water on the table, he noticed that the she was grading school papers, and judging by the big loopy handwriting on each page, she was grading primary school work. 

Instead of asking her if she was ready to order, his excitement took over. “Are you a teacher?” he asked before realizing what he said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude I just saw the papers.” 

The woman laughed softly at the nervous boy in front of her, “It’s no problem, but yes I teach at the elementary school a few blocks away. Would you mind bringing me a cup of coffee with milk and sugar please?” Luke nodded and quickly retrieved a mug and coffee. Most of the other customers had cleared out by now, Luke noticed when he looked around the restaurant. It had been a long day, and Luke wanted nothing more for the clock to reach 8:00 and he and Michael could go upstairs and have time to themselves. Luke almost whined when he saw that it was only 6:40, and based on the similar looks on the other waiter’s faces, he could tell that they felt the same way. 

“Why are you drinking coffee so late?” Luke blurted out as he put the mug down on the table, mentally cursing himself for his momentary lack of filter . The woman sighed and took a sip of the coffee, “My teaching assistant usually grades all of the these, but she just moved across the country, so until I find a new one I’ll be having some late nights.” 

Luke’s heart sped up, maybe this was his chance! He took a deep breath and thought about what he was going to say. “Could I...uh...could I apply for the job?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck. 

The woman put down her mug and looked at Luke. His eyes were filled with hope and he was twiddling his fingers with nerves. “I can interview you some other time, aren’t you working?” 

There aren’t any customers in my section anymore,” he shrugged. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to seem desperate but teaching is all I’ve ever wanted to do.” 

“Do you have any experience?” she asked, putting her red pen down and giving Luke her full attention.  

“Well,” Luke started. “No, but I was a babysitter all morning for my friend’s siblings when he was at work for six months. I..uh.. My family were all farmers and I didn’t get the chance to go to school, but my friend taught me how to read and write and I’ve been practicing all the time. Teaching is my biggest dream and if I could have the opportunity…” 

“What’s your name?” she interrupted. 

 “Luke Hemmings, m’am. And yours?” 

 “Joan Johnson. When would you be able to work?” 

 “Whenever! I work here three days a week, but I could help grade papers or read to the kids if you needed that. I’d do whatever you needed.” 

“Would you boss be okay with that?” Joan asked, and Luke nodded, knowing that Michael would freak out just hearing about this conversation. “Well Luke, I’d love for you to be my new teaching assistant, I’ll leave you the address. How does tomorrow at 9 o’clock start? That’s when the first bell for the student’s rings.” 

Luke could hardly believe what he was hearing; he didn’t want to say anything stupid to make Joan change her mind so he waited for her to give her a slip of paper with the school’s name and address on it before thanking her and standing up. “Would you like anything else?” he asked politely.  

“Do you have a carry-away cup for the drink? I completely lost track of time.” Luke nodded and took the half empty mug of coffee and poured it in a nearby styrofoam cup. Joan packed up the graded papers into her briefcase and left the restaurant with a smile and a “see you tomorrow!” to Luke.  

The second the door closed behind her, Luke jumped up and ran into the kitchen. It was only 7:30, but Calum had told one of the waiters to start closing down. Michael passed the clean dish to Calum to dry when he felt the blonde hug him tightly from behind. 

“Michael! I did it!” Luke practically screamed. Michael turned around in confusion, “That’s great babe, what did you do?” 

“This woman came in and looked like she was a teacher so I asked her if she was and she said yes! Then she started talking about how her teaching assistant just quit and she needed a new one and I asked her if I could apply and she asked me a few questions and told me to come to the school tomorrow! I got a teaching job!” Luke spoke so quickly that Michael had to take it all in for a second before realization hit him. He grabbed Luke’s hips and pulled him in close. 

“That’s amazing Lu! I’m so unbelievably proud of you!” 

“Hey!” Calum interrupted. “I’m your teacher Luke, you should be thanking me!” Luke detached his arms from Michael’s and wrapped them around Calum’s. 

“Thank you Cal,” Luke spoke softly. “I couldn’t have done any of this without you.” 

“Okay you big sap. I’ll close the restaurant, go celebrate with your boyfriend.” Calum said. Michael looked over at him, but Calum smiled at him and nodded his head, urging him to go upstairs.  

Michael took off his dirty chef coat and threw it in the hamper, thanking Calum once again before handing Luke the key to their apartment. He followed the blonde upstairs and exhaled deeply when he walked into their bedroom. Luke was sitting on the edge of the bed with a huge smile on his face. Michael walked towards him and lightly pushed Luke’s back onto the bed. He straddled Luke’s upper body and left light kisses all over his face. The blonde was giggling below him and all Michael could feel was immense pride, happiness, and _ love _ . 

 

He was so in love with Luke. 


	18. Eighteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke was fine, a little sad, but fine. He had his paper route he did every morning without fail, and always knew where to stand to sell the most in the afternoon. It wasn't perfect, but it worked for him. That is, until the cute restaurant owner started being nice to him. That was when it all went downhill.

SAN FRANCISCO: AUGUST 1931

It was hot and Michael’s chef coat was practically sticking to him. It was closing time on a late summer night when Michael stepped back from the grill and took a second to just breathe. He looked around the kitchen and smiled to himself.  _ This was it.  _ Everything had finally come together for him: the restaurant was getting increasingly popular after a stellar newspaper review, he got to work with his best friend, and he got to do what he loved. He heard some of his customers talking about the “American Dream”, and he knew that he had achieved it. Sure, he was working hard six out of the seven days of the week, but he had never been happier. 

The sun hadn’t gone down yet, but customers were starting to file out with big smiles and full stomachs. Michael waved the familiar guests off before wiping the sweat off his forehead with a kitchen towel. He jumped when he felt a strong arm clamp down on his back, but relaxed into it when he recognized Calum next to him. 

“You okay?” he asked, smiling knowingly at the nostalgic look in his best friend’s eyes.

Michael nodded, “Just wish he was here to see this. All of this.” Calum’s smiled dropped for a second and he squeezed his hand on Michael’s shoulder. 

“You know he’d be so proud of you. You did it Mike.” The eldest nodded, but the thoughts of his late uncle still lingered in his mind. The two were broken out of their individual thoughts when a flash of blonde rushed through the door out of the corner of their eyes. 

Michael couldn’t hold back a laugh when he saw his boyfriend. Luke was covered practically head-to-toe in glitter and stickers. He had a leather briefcase (a gift from Michael upon getting the teaching job) in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Calum squeezed Michael’s shoulder once more before stepping back, “I’ll start cleaning boss” The chef nodded his appreciation at his best friend. 

“Good day love?” Michael asked, walking close enough to Luke to pull him into a hug. The blonde sighed and relaxed into the embrace, throwing his briefcase and paper onto the closest table so he could reciprocate the hug. 

“Really good,” was muffled quietly into Michael’s neck. “Super tired though. Kids are crazy. How was your day?” 

“Sweaty.” he deadpanned. Luke giggled at that and pulled back from the hug and pretended to sniff Michael. “You’re right,” he joked. “You smell gross.” 

Ever since Luke started his job, the two saw each other much less during the day, so in the evenings they spent every second they could together. It had become a routine when Luke came home that they would hug and talk briefly about their days. The two weren’t huge on PDA, even though all of the employees knew about their relationship, so they kept it short and sweet until they had privacy in their apartment. 

Michael pulled Luke’s body closer to his and rocked them both back and forth. Luke picked his head for a second and Michael took the opportunity to press his lips to his boyfriend’s. Luke let out a small noise of surprise before closing his eyes and relaxing into the kiss. 

“You want something to eat?” Michael mumbled against Luke’s lips. The blonde shook his head and pulled Michael in closer (if that was even possible), “Want you.” 

The older boy was so tempted to just grab him and take him upstairs but he knew Luke needed to eat. He reluctantly pulled away and Luke groaned in annoyance. “C’mon, what do you want love?” 

Luke rested his head on Michael’s shoulder and closed his eyes. The kids had completely exhausted him today, but he loved it nonetheless. “Peanut butter and jelly sandwich please.” He felt Michael nod and swiftly move them towards the bar. Michael sat Luke down before kissing his temple. “Be right back.” 

When Michael went back into the kitchen most of his employees had already clocked out. The counters were clean and most of the plates and utensils were drying on the racks. Calum and Jennifer were the last people there washing up together. Calum had  _ finally  _ asked her out about a month ago and they were in the puppy-love stage- a phase that Michael and Luke had never seemed to escape.

Michael quickly prepared Luke’s dinner and said goodnight to Calum and Jessica before bringing the sandwich and a case of milk to Luke’s seat at the bar. The assistant teacher had a red pen between his teeth as he attentively read through one of his student’s papers. The sound of the glass plate shook him out of his concentration and he smiled up at Michael. He kissed his boyfriend’s cheek in gratitude and dug into his sandwich, quickly realizing how hungry he actually was. 

Michael wiped down the tables while Luke ate and finished grading. The two were still sad about their limited time together during most days, but each were comforted by the idea that the other was spending his time doing exactly what he wanted to do. Luke had fallen in love with all of the students and they treated him with kindness and respect; a day never went by when he reminded them of how lucky they were to be able to go to school and learn in the first place. 

While Michael was wiping down the last table he looked up at Luke. Luke’s back was to Michael as he hunched over the bar, but that gave the older boy an opportunity to admire Luke. This was never the life that Michael had imagined growing up; he imagined doing some random office job, marrying some girl and having a kid or two- opening a successful restaurant in his uncle’s honor and falling in love with a boy was never planned, but now he couldn’t picture a better life. 

He hadn’t told Luke that he loved him yet-frankly he was terrified that the blonde would think it was too soon or laugh at him. Deep down he knew that he had nothing to worry about; this was  _ Luke _ , who meticulously folded and laid Michael’s chef’s coat every morning, surprised him with his favorite chocolates, and never left without a goodbye kiss. But the doubt remained in Michael’s mind, keeping him from telling Luke the true depth of his feelings. 

He shook himself out of his thoughts and threw the towel over his shoulder. Luke had pushed his plate away from him to create more space for his papers, so Michael took the empty plate off of the bar and into the kitchen. He heard Luke call a “Thank you!” from the bar, but he was too tired to respond. Friday nights meant that he would have the next two days with Luke in the restaurant, but they also meant lines out the door and countless order slips. His muscles were tired and all he wanted to do was crawl into bed. 

While he was washing up the last few dishes, he heard the buckling of Luke’s briefcase and footsteps coming closer. Luke grabbed the wet plate from Michael’s hands and dried it before putting it back. Michael tried to object but Luke held up his hand and shook it head. 

“Go to bed babe, you look exhausted. I can clean up my dishes.” The look Luke gave Michael told him not to argue so he nodded sleepily and kissed Luke’s cheek. Luke put the plate down to unbutton Michael’s chef coat and throw it in the hamper. Michael’s eyes were already beginning to lull.

Luke placed his hand on Michael’s right cheek and rubbed his thumb on the skin under Michael’s eyes. Michael opened his eyes and looked directly at Luke; fuck, he was so in love. He wanted to tell Luke right then and there, but he decided against it and opted to nuzzle his head into Luke’s hand, enjoying his touch. The blonde patted Michael’s face and leaned in to kiss his nose, “Go to bed beautiful. I’ll be up soon.” 

Michael lazily made his way up to the stairs to their apartment. He was on autopilot getting ready for bed. He thought that as soon as his head hit the pillow he’d fall asleep immediately, but he was frustrated when he couldn’t get comfortable. Michael felt like crying: he was so tired and just wanted to go to sleep but he couldn’t and he just wanted Luke.

Luke had turned off all of the lights and locked up the restaurant before going upstairs. As soon as he walked through the door he knew something was off. He heard soft cries from their room and rushed in. The lights were off when he entered, but he could still make out the shaking lump on Michael’s side of his bed. Luke cautiously approached Michael, not really knowing how to comfort him or what this was even about. He undid his shoes and took off his shirt and pants, leaving him in his boxers. He peeled back the covers and saw his boyfriend curled into a ball with tears falling down his face. 

“Michael?” Luke gasped, quickly laying down and pulling the older boy into his chest. “Why are you crying love? Is everything alright?” he asked as he ran his fingers through his hair. 

“I can’t sleep,” Michael sniffled, burying his head into Luke’s chest. “I know I’m overreacting but I need you to sleep, and I’m just so tired, I…”

Luke shushed him and held him closer. “You’re ok Mike, I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, just close your eyes and breathe for me ok?” 

Not long after, Michael’s breathing evened out and all Luke could think of was how in love he was.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning Luke let Michael sleep in; he was familiar enough with the morning routine of the restaurant and the last thing he wanted to do was wake his boyfriend after last night. That was the first time Luke had seen Michael that distressed since he came back to San Francisco and he hated it. He’d never want to see his boyfriend cry, even if he had just been a little overworked. 

He snuck out of bed, careful not to disturb Michael, and took a quick shower. Michael was still asleep when he came out, so he dressed himself and laid out a clean chef shirt for the sleeping boy before pressing a soft kiss to his hair and leaving their bedroom door. 

The restaurant was empty when he got down there, so he made a big pot of coffee for Michael and brewed tea for himself as he waited for Calum to come. He only had a few minutes alone before Calum came into the kitchen, threw his backpack in the employee room, and grabbed his own white coat. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw Luke sitting on one of the metal counters with a mug of tea in one hand. 

“Where’s Mike?” he asked. 

“What? You’re not happy to see me?” Luke joked and Calum rolled his eyes.

“You’re so annoying, of course I’m happy to see you. We haven’t had any reading lessons in awhile now have we?” Calum said while pouring himself a glass of water. Luke no longer needed Calum’s help to read, and the older boy couldn’t even begin to think about how proud he was of the blonde.

“Been busy.” Luke muttered, guilty that he hadn’t made more of an effort to hang out with Calum since he got his job. 

“So I’ve heard,” Calum said. “Are you busy tomorrow afternoon? We haven’t spent time together in so long. And as much as I hate to admit it, I miss you Hemmings.” 

“Tomorrow sounds good,” Luke beamed and nodded. “Michael’s still sleeping upstairs, he kind of had a rough night last night so I figured he’d take the morning off. So I’m here to take his place.” he finally answered Calum’s first question. 

“Rough night? Did you guys get into a fight or something?” Calum asked, piling up the plates and glasses that had been drying overnight. 

Luke shook his head and joined Calum at the dish rack, “No, he just seemed really tired. I think everything just got to him last night and he couldn’t handle it. He’ll be down here soon, he doesn’t really sleep that late anymore.” 

“Yeah that’s because he can’t sleep without you.” Calum teased, causing Luke to blush. 

It turned out that Michael slept until around 11, coming downstairs with bedhead when most of his employees were already there. The cooks all greeted him and he sent them all a small smile. His eyes searched the room for blonde hair, but he couldn’t see Luke anywhere. 

“He’s in your booth.” Calum said, popping out from around a corner and startled his best friend. Michael put a hand over his heart, “Christ Cal you can’t just do that.” Calum laughed and shooed him out of the kitchen. 

True to Calum’s word, Luke was sitting in the booth in the back corner with papers surrounding him. Michael took a seat next to him and kissed his cheek gingerly. “Missed you this morning, you didn’t wake me up.” Luke put his pen down and grabbed Michael’s hand. 

“Thought you’d like to sleep more. You looked completely worn out last night. Besides, I got to help Cal this morning, haven’t really talked to him much recently.” 

“Thank you Lu, I really needed that. I’m feeling a lot better.” 

Luke leaned in and gave him a soft kiss. “Good, cause you gotta get ready to open soon.” Michael groaned and fell into Luke’s open arms. 

“Are you working here today?” he asked. 

“I’m working the dinner shift,” Luke answered. “Have some papers to grade before then.” 

Michael helped Luke gather up his papers and put them back into his overflowing briefcase. Luke gave him a final kiss and a soft “Have fun” before going back upstairs. Michael shook his head at the blonde in admiration before going back into the kitchen, groaning at all his employees knowing smirks at him. “I will fire all of you” he joke-threatened, but in reality he was overjoyed at his workers support of his and Luke’s relationship. Not everyone was accepting, but he loved knowing that everyone in the restaurant had his back. 

As soon as the doors opened at noon, customers flowed in and the order slips started piling up. It didn’t take long for Michael to get into his cooking grove and soon the afternoon slipped into the evening. Michael was so focused that when Luke came in the kitchen to clock into his shift, he didn’t feel like any time had passed and was genuinely confused to see the blonde. He snapped out of it however, when he looked out the small window in the kitchen and saw the sun starting to set. 

Luke grabbed his pen and pad of paper before giving Michael a quick kiss and leaving the kitchen. As much as he may have internally complained about working as a waiter before he found another job, he sure missed it. He and Michael had created the perfect schedule where he would work at the restaurant for either the lunch or dinner shift on Saturday and the morning and early afternoon on Sunday’s when  **WonderBar** was open for brunch. Michael loved it because he still got to see Luke on the weekends even when he was working, and Luke loved the restaurant and all the people there, and working shorter and fewer hours was definitely what he needed.  

Everything was going perfectly; Luke practically had the whole menu memorized and had a month long streak of not tripping and breaking a glass. The blonde was ready for any and everything that came his way whether it was a dietary question about the deserts or helping the hostesses seat large parties. What he wasn’t prepared for in any way was seeing his parents. 

As soon as he looked at his next table he froze. There was no doubt in his mind that the two people sitting down were his parents. Why they were in San Francisco was beyond him and he felt his body go numb. The last time he saw these people they were screaming insults at him and physically pushing him out of their house. He could vaguely feel Elena, one of the hostesses, pulling at his arm, but he couldn’t move. Time seemed to stand still. Somebody pushed him and he fell out of his trance. He looked around frantically, wondering if it had just been an illusion, but when he looked back at the table they were still there. 

He rushed frantically into the kitchen. He  _ needed  _ Michael. The older boy looked up from chopping up vegetables when he heard someone run in. Luke’s big blue eyes met his and he immediately knew something was wrong. He put the knife down and pulled Luke into the employee’s back room. There were two waiters on their break there and Michael shooed them out before turning to Luke. The blonde had tears streaming down his face and was visibly shaking. 

“M-m-my par-r…” he stuttered out, but Michael cut him off and pulled him into his arms. Luke shrunk into Michael and wrapped his arms tightly around his boyfriend. Michael ran his hand through the bottom of Luke’s hair at the base of his neck and continually shushed him. 

When Luke had calmed down a bit, Michael tried again. “What happened babe?” 

“My parents,” Luke sniffled. “I don’t know why or how, but they’re out there. In one of the tables in my section!” 

Michael furrowed his eyebrows. “Are you sure Lu? North Dakota is a long way you know?” 

Luke frantically nodded. “I’m sure. I wouldn’t forget them.” Michael just sighed and held the boy closer to him. He wanted to do nothing more than throw them out, but that would cause a scene and none of them need that. 

“What do you want to do love? We can assign someone else to your section tonight and you can just go upstairs if you want.” Michael offered, but Luke shook his head. He pulled away from Michael and wiped his eyes. 

“I want to do it. I’m sorry, I freaked out, but I can do it. I want to show them how much better I am without them.” 

Michael looked at how confident Luke was and a sense of  _ pride  _ and  _ unconditional love _ rushed through him, he couldn’t hold back anymore. 

“Fuck, Luke I love you so much.” he breathed out, eyes widening when he realized what he said. He was about to take it back or explain himself when Luke launched himself back into his arms. 

“I love you too Mike.” The older boy was in shock for a second, but absorbed Luke’s words and beamed. Luke pulled back from the hug and gave Michael a lingering kiss. When he pulled away he smiled shyly at Michael and grabbed his hand. 

“Go get ‘em babe.” Michael said and patted Luke on the back. Luke smiled determined up at him before leaving the room and stepping out of the kitchen. 

  
He took one last look at Michael in the kitchen before walking over to his parent’s table. Michael gave him a supportive nod, almost to say “You got this. I believe in you” and Luke knew he had nothing to lose. He had finally gotten something right in his life, and he wasn’t ever going to let it go. He wasn’t ever going to let Michael go. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, so this is the end!! thank you to everyone who stuck with us from the beginning and we hope you liked it!

**Author's Note:**

> follow our tumblrs!  
> @spotifymichael and @lookinforsunlight  
> :)


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